Photograph
White House Photographs
JFKWHP-KN-23752
President John F. Kennedy confers with Manager of Florida Operations for the Manned Spacecraft Center, G. Merritt Preston (right, back to camera), and astronaut Major L. Gordon Cooper (mostly hidden behind Mr. Preston), during a tour of Mercury spacecraft systems and equipment inside Hangar S at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Cape Canaveral, Florida. Also pictured: Naval Aide to the President, Captain Tazewell T. Shepard, Jr.; Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson; White House Secret Service agent, Gerald A. “Jerry” Behn. Mercury spacecraft capsule #19 sits at left in background. President Kennedy visited Cape Canaveral as part of a two-day inspection tour of National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) field installations.