SkyMan says, "Two down, one to go". (Caution, many pix).
SkyMan
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As many of you know, for the last 6 years I've been collecting space memorabilia. My collecting goal is to collect at least one flown item from every Mercury, Gemini and Apollo (MGA) flight. There were 27 flights in total; 6, 10 and 11 respectively. The difficulty of finding an object from a given flight is directly related to the size of the given spacecraft. Even though there were eleven Apollo flights, they were the first series I completed. As of October of this year I still needed to collect two Mercury flights, Freedom 7 and Aurora 7, and one Gemini flight, Gemini 8 (GT-8).
When a MGA spacecraft returned to Earth it was protected by an ablative shield, commonly called a heat shield. The shields are basically made out of plastic. As the heat shield heats up, the plastic boils away and takes the heat away with it, more or less like how sweat evaporating on your skin will cool you down. When the capsule was recovered engineers would drill cores through the ablative shield to see how the shield performed. After any tests to be completed on the heat shield core were done, the core would be cut up and pieces given to people who had worked to help make that flight viable. One of the most common (although still rare in the absolute sense) forms of space memorabilia are heat shield plugs. The problem with heat shield plugs are that they generally have no provenance trail, and they are potentially relatively easily counterfeited. For this reason I've stayed away from heat shield plugs.
Last week Heritage held a space memorabilia auction. One of the consignors to the auction was the daughter of a long time NASA and NACA (the precursor to NASA) employee. The employee had a large collection, certainly the largest I've ever seen, of heat shield plugs that were given to him after most of the Mercury and Gemini, and some of the Apollo missions. I realized that here was a chance to buy something flown from Aurora 7, a heat shield plug of unquestionable authenticity. I noticed that the Gemini heat shield plugs looked different than the Mercury plugs, so I also bid on a couple GT-8 plugs and won one of them. So, by the end of the auction, I had completed the Gemini portion of my collection. In the future, I still plan to try and win a GT-8 Fliteline medallion and hopefully a checklist or something, but those would simply round out the GT-8 part of my collection. The GT-8 heat shield plug was encased in lucite (the Aurora 7 piece was on a wood presentation piece). The plug itself measures .75" X .75" X 1.75". Here are some pix of the plug.
The Gemini series, or Project Gemini, was the point where that US overtook the USSR in Manned spaceflight. Up until that point in time the USSR was pretty much crushing the US in the Manned spaceflight arena. The Soviets had launched the first Man in space, the first Woman in space, the first multi-craft mission, the longest duration mission, the first multi-person mission, and the first spacewalk. In total the Soviets had 22 man days spent in space (including ~ 10 minutes of spacewalk) versus less than 2 1/4 man days in space for the US. The US had no significant Manned space "firsts".
Gemini 3 launched on 3/23/65. Gemini's 4 - 12 followed, with a new mission roughly every 2 months. By the end of Gemini 12, on 11/15/66, the Soviet Union had NO more Manned time spent in space. The US had increased it's total Man hours spent in space to ~ 83 days, and ~ 11:30 hours of spacewalking (EVA). During the Gemini program the US rung up a wide variety of space firsts, including the first spacecraft to change it's orbit, the first rendezvous in space, and the first docking in space.
Here are some flown pieces from my Gemini collection. There is one piece for each mission. In addition I've included a little bit of what made that specific mission historical.
Gemini 3; Gus Grissom, John Young.
During this mission the First change of a manned spacecraft's orbit was successfully completed. Here is the only dime that Gus Grissom brought with him on the flight. He brought 100 dimes with him on his first flight, (Mercury) Liberty Bell 7. I own one of those pieces, so currently I am the only person that has a complete set of Grissom flown dimes.
Gemini 4; Jim McDivitt, Ed White II.
The first American spacewalk (the 2nd ever). Here's a $2.50 Liberty that mission commander Jim McDivitt brought with him on the flight.
Gemini 5; Gordo Cooper, Pete Conrad.
An 8 day mission that was 3 days longer than the previous (Soviet) record for longest mission. Here's a Fliteline medallion that flew on the mission.
Gemini 7 (launched before Gemini 6); Frank Borman, Jim Lovell.
The longest Manned mission ever up to that point, 14 days. It also was involved in the First rendezvous ever, with Gemini 6. This is a flown mission patch from mission pilot Jim Lovell.
Gemini 6; Wally Schirra, Tom Stafford.
A 1 day mission. GT-6 was the active ship in the First ever rendezvous, with Gemini 7. Here is a flown patch from commander Wally Schirra.
Gemini 8; Neil Armstrong, Dave Scott.
The First docking ever in space between two vehicles. GT-8, docked with an Agena rocket. A thruster malfunction caused the early cancelation of the mission and almost killed Armstrong and Scott. For this mission I've got the heat shield plug that was posted above.
Gemini 9; Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan.
The first attempt to do serious work during a spacewalk, by Cernan. The spacewalk was not successful. Here is a flown Fliteline medallion from the mission, that was turned into a pin.
Gemini 10; John Young, Michael Collins.
The first multi-docking mission ever. GT-10 docked with Agena rockets multiple times, and Collins did multiple spacewalks. Here's a flown Fliteline medallion.
Gemini 11; Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon.
Multi-docking, multi-EVA mission. Attained an altitude record that would stand until the Apollo moon shots. Here are some pix from the flown Procedures checklist, which is ~ 100 pages long.
Gemini 12; Jim Lovell, Buzz Aldrin.
Multi-docking, multi-EVA mission. For the first time NASA figured out how to do effective work on an EVA. Also the first time a spacewalker (Aldrin) practiced for his EVA in a large swimming pool before the mission, to mimic weightless conditions. Here is one of Aldrin's flown flashlights.
When a MGA spacecraft returned to Earth it was protected by an ablative shield, commonly called a heat shield. The shields are basically made out of plastic. As the heat shield heats up, the plastic boils away and takes the heat away with it, more or less like how sweat evaporating on your skin will cool you down. When the capsule was recovered engineers would drill cores through the ablative shield to see how the shield performed. After any tests to be completed on the heat shield core were done, the core would be cut up and pieces given to people who had worked to help make that flight viable. One of the most common (although still rare in the absolute sense) forms of space memorabilia are heat shield plugs. The problem with heat shield plugs are that they generally have no provenance trail, and they are potentially relatively easily counterfeited. For this reason I've stayed away from heat shield plugs.
Last week Heritage held a space memorabilia auction. One of the consignors to the auction was the daughter of a long time NASA and NACA (the precursor to NASA) employee. The employee had a large collection, certainly the largest I've ever seen, of heat shield plugs that were given to him after most of the Mercury and Gemini, and some of the Apollo missions. I realized that here was a chance to buy something flown from Aurora 7, a heat shield plug of unquestionable authenticity. I noticed that the Gemini heat shield plugs looked different than the Mercury plugs, so I also bid on a couple GT-8 plugs and won one of them. So, by the end of the auction, I had completed the Gemini portion of my collection. In the future, I still plan to try and win a GT-8 Fliteline medallion and hopefully a checklist or something, but those would simply round out the GT-8 part of my collection. The GT-8 heat shield plug was encased in lucite (the Aurora 7 piece was on a wood presentation piece). The plug itself measures .75" X .75" X 1.75". Here are some pix of the plug.
The Gemini series, or Project Gemini, was the point where that US overtook the USSR in Manned spaceflight. Up until that point in time the USSR was pretty much crushing the US in the Manned spaceflight arena. The Soviets had launched the first Man in space, the first Woman in space, the first multi-craft mission, the longest duration mission, the first multi-person mission, and the first spacewalk. In total the Soviets had 22 man days spent in space (including ~ 10 minutes of spacewalk) versus less than 2 1/4 man days in space for the US. The US had no significant Manned space "firsts".
Gemini 3 launched on 3/23/65. Gemini's 4 - 12 followed, with a new mission roughly every 2 months. By the end of Gemini 12, on 11/15/66, the Soviet Union had NO more Manned time spent in space. The US had increased it's total Man hours spent in space to ~ 83 days, and ~ 11:30 hours of spacewalking (EVA). During the Gemini program the US rung up a wide variety of space firsts, including the first spacecraft to change it's orbit, the first rendezvous in space, and the first docking in space.
Here are some flown pieces from my Gemini collection. There is one piece for each mission. In addition I've included a little bit of what made that specific mission historical.
Gemini 3; Gus Grissom, John Young.
During this mission the First change of a manned spacecraft's orbit was successfully completed. Here is the only dime that Gus Grissom brought with him on the flight. He brought 100 dimes with him on his first flight, (Mercury) Liberty Bell 7. I own one of those pieces, so currently I am the only person that has a complete set of Grissom flown dimes.
Gemini 4; Jim McDivitt, Ed White II.
The first American spacewalk (the 2nd ever). Here's a $2.50 Liberty that mission commander Jim McDivitt brought with him on the flight.
Gemini 5; Gordo Cooper, Pete Conrad.
An 8 day mission that was 3 days longer than the previous (Soviet) record for longest mission. Here's a Fliteline medallion that flew on the mission.
Gemini 7 (launched before Gemini 6); Frank Borman, Jim Lovell.
The longest Manned mission ever up to that point, 14 days. It also was involved in the First rendezvous ever, with Gemini 6. This is a flown mission patch from mission pilot Jim Lovell.
Gemini 6; Wally Schirra, Tom Stafford.
A 1 day mission. GT-6 was the active ship in the First ever rendezvous, with Gemini 7. Here is a flown patch from commander Wally Schirra.
Gemini 8; Neil Armstrong, Dave Scott.
The First docking ever in space between two vehicles. GT-8, docked with an Agena rocket. A thruster malfunction caused the early cancelation of the mission and almost killed Armstrong and Scott. For this mission I've got the heat shield plug that was posted above.
Gemini 9; Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan.
The first attempt to do serious work during a spacewalk, by Cernan. The spacewalk was not successful. Here is a flown Fliteline medallion from the mission, that was turned into a pin.
Gemini 10; John Young, Michael Collins.
The first multi-docking mission ever. GT-10 docked with Agena rockets multiple times, and Collins did multiple spacewalks. Here's a flown Fliteline medallion.
Gemini 11; Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon.
Multi-docking, multi-EVA mission. Attained an altitude record that would stand until the Apollo moon shots. Here are some pix from the flown Procedures checklist, which is ~ 100 pages long.
Gemini 12; Jim Lovell, Buzz Aldrin.
Multi-docking, multi-EVA mission. For the first time NASA figured out how to do effective work on an EVA. Also the first time a spacewalker (Aldrin) practiced for his EVA in a large swimming pool before the mission, to mimic weightless conditions. Here is one of Aldrin's flown flashlights.
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Comments
In the realm of "what ifs" you have to wonder that had Korolyev not died, that perhaps the USSR could have put the first man on the moon.
Thanks as always for a very cool and very well done thread and all the very best in acquiring more awesome treasures...
AB
I especially dig the Cooper-Conrad medallion with the old times wagon detail.
Thanks for sharing this, and for showing me some of your collection. I love that I actually held a piece from a lunar module. The fingerprint isn't mine, BTW.
Lance.
Glad you do it. The things you've gotten have a good home.
Thanks for posting.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
Rob
Successful Trades with: Coincast, MICHAELDIXON
Successful Purchases from: Manorcourtman, Meltdown
I think for me the ultimate piece to have would be Buzz Aldrin's 1923-S Peace dollar that he took to the moon...
and congrats on the new additions
Steve
Love that Lovell Gemini 7 patch
Thanks for including me in your give-away !
Looking for Top Pop Mercury Dime Varieties & High Grade Mercury Dime Toners.
<< <i>...In the realm of "what ifs" you have to wonder that had Korolyev not died, that perhaps the USSR could have put the first man on the moon. >>
If Korolev had not died there was a reasonable shot that the USSR could have beaten the US to send the first Manned flight AROUND the Moon, which for propaganda purposes would have been VERY important. There was NO chance the USSR could have beaten the US to landing the first Man on the Moon.
The USSR did several so called Zond flights in 1968. The Zond spacecraft was basically a stripped down Soyuz spacecraft. It did not have landing capability, much less any other sort of capability except for keeping the cosmonaut alive. It could NOT slow down into lunar orbit. All it could do was a circumlunar orbit of the Moon. A circumlunar orbit is basically a figure 8 orbit where the spacecraft flies out from Earth, circles around the Moon, and returns to Earth. It is also sometimes called a lunar free return flight. Zond 5 launched 9/15/68 and carried the first lifeforms, turtles to be exact (there's gotta' be a Turtle club drinking joke in there somewhere), to travel around the Moon and return safely to Earth. The closest approach to the Moon was ~ 1,200 miles. There were issues with the heat shield during re-entry, but the turtles survived. Zond 6 launched 11/10/68 also did a circumlunar orbit of the Moon, but had issues with it's sealing gaskets during re-entry, letting out the air and killing all the biological specimens aboard.
The US was WELL aware that the USSR was doing these tests, and dramatically increased the pace of it's testing schedule, going directly from the first Manned test flight of Apollo (Apollo 7) on 10/11/68, which orbited the Earth for ~ 11 days to sending Apollo 8 to the Moon on 12/21/68. Apollo 8 not only went to the Moon, but the ship went into lunar orbit for 10 revolutions before returning to Earth and landing on 12/27/68. During the flight the astronauts (specifically Bill Anders) took arguably one of the most famous photos of all time, the Earth rising above the lunar surface.
If you are interested in Korolev I would recommend a book called, "Korolev" by James Hartford, published by John Wiley & Sons in 1997.
U.S. Type Set
I very much admire these space collectables - but I still have my affinity for materiel from the Rodina.
One of the quote, joys, unquote, of collecting is learning about counterfeits. Yours truly found out the hard way (luckily at reasonably small financial cost) that the early Soviet signatures are, aside from Armstrong's signature, the most counterfeited of the space farer's signatures. There are several groups that actively create them. Here's a period piece I bought that theoretically had Valentina Tereshkova's, Yuri Gagarin's and Gherman Titov's signatures on it. Unfortunately all 3 signatures are fake.
I was finally able to collect unquestionable examples of their signatures when Walt Cunningham, an astronaut who flew on Apollo 7, sold a Soviet/Russian postcard book of his. He went to a meeting of astronauts and cosmonauts in Russia some time ago. He had various of the cosmonauts sign a Soviet/Russian postcard book that he purchased when he was in Russia. Basically the book had pictures of all the early Soviet cosmonauts up through various of the Soyuz flights. Yuri Gagarin, the first Man in space, was dead by the time of the meeting, so I don't have his signature, but I do have signatures from Gherman Titov, Andriyan Nikolayev, Pavel Popovich, Valery Bykovsky, Valentina Tereshkova and Aliexi Leonov (along with several other signatures of cosmonauts who flew on Voskhod 1 & 2 and on some of the Soyuz missions. Accompanying the postcard book is a letter from Cunningham explaining about how he got the signatures, so the provenance trail is as good as it is possible to get. So, here ya' go, here's Tereshkova's signature...
U.S. Type Set
A true collection of beauty!
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CoinsAreFun Toned Silver Eagle Proof Album
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Gallery Mint Museum, Ron Landis& Joe Rust, The beginnings of the Golden Dollar
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More CoinsAreFun Pictorials NGC
I'll remember to keep looking up
Thanks,
Eric
U.S. Type Set
what do you make of the artwork produced by the many artists NASA brought in to record the more human side of things in the Apollo program? Have you ever collected any of this material? It seems to offer yet another vantage?
Eric
What do you make of the artwork produced by the many artists NASA brought in to record the more human side of things during the Apollo program? Have you ever collected any of this material? It seems to offer yet another vantage?
Eric
Someone who had really grown as an artist over his 30ish years of doing it professionally is Alan Bean. He flew on Apollo 12 and was the fourth human to set foot on the Moon. He does quite nice work, and you can get relatively inexpensive (~ $1,000) limited edition giclee's of his work. However, if you want a real piece of his, it will range from $50,000 - $300,000 a pop.
U.S. Type Set