Nearly 50 years after the first person took those giant leaps onto the surface of the moon, a never-before-seen photo has been unearthed.
Command Module pilot on that mission, Michael Collins, shared the photo that he found buried among his things of the three astronauts that made up the historic crew, USA Today reported.
The crew. Found this at the bottom of a box. Don’t think it was ever used by @NASA. #TBT @TheRealBuzz pic.twitter.com/ZXINsWPcix
— Michael Collins (@AstroMCollins) June 13, 2019
“The crew,” Collins tweeted. “Found this at the bottom of a box. Don’t think it was ever used by @NASA. #TBT @TheRealBuzz.”
Collins can be seen standing with his arm draped casually over a replica of the moon while his teammates, astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, pose on the opposite side.
Collins’ assumption that the photo wasn’t used by NASA or seen by the public before has been, according to USA Today, further backed up by the Orlando Sentinel. The newspaper has put together a commemorative book for Apollo 11‘s 50th anniversary that’s full of photographs from 1969. This particular picture wasn’t included and none of the Sentinel’s staff members can recall seeing it while combing through the archives.
While the mission was monumental for the U.S. space program and humanity’s scientific endeavors, it wasn’t Collins’ first time in space. The astronaut was also an integral part of the Gemini 10 mission, which offered him the opportunity to conduct his first ever spacewalk, according to the paper.
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