Cameras similar to this D.B. Milliken pilot observer were integrated into the instrument panels on early U.S. space flights. In early space missions, it was important for spacecraft designers and scientists to gather evidence about the mission, behavior of the astronaut in the microgravity environment, and operations of the spacecraft in order to improve futher spacecraft and astronaut training. Cameras embedded in the instrument panel and behind the astronauts' heads gathered this photographic evidence. This pilot-observer camera, aimed at the astronaut, captured the only photographs of humans in space before the two-person Gemini missions.

This camera was transferred from NASA to the Museum in 1978.