Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-C28562
President John F. Kennedy (right) shakes hands with astronaut Major L. Gordon Cooper, after presenting Major Cooper with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Distinguished Service Medal (DSM). Also pictured: Senator Everett L. Dirksen (Illinois); Senator Margaret Chase Smith (Maine); Senator Leverett Saltonstall (Massachusetts); Hattie Cooper, mother of Major Cooper; Director of the Langley Aeronautical Laboratory, Dr. Floyd L. Thompson; Air Force Aide to the President, Brigadier General Godfrey T. McHugh; Secretary of the Air Force, Eugene M. Zuckert; Jewell D. Truscott and James J. Truscott, Major Cooper’s aunt and uncle; astronaut Major Donald K. “Deke” Slayton; astronaut Major Virgil I. “Gus” Grissom; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; astronaut Commander Walter Schirra; astronaut Lieutenant Commander M. Scott Carpenter. Rose Garden, White House, Washington, D.C.