Wednesday, December 17, 2008

NASA Distinguished Service Medal in Box


This is the NASA Distinguished Service medal that is awarded to astronauts and the highest level of NASA or contractor management. This is the 2nd highest award given, behind the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, which is awarded by the POTUS to astronauts for extraordinary skill or courage during a spaceflight.


This NASA DSM was presented to a gentleman who's name is engraved on the back, when it was presented to him.

NASA ISS Emerson Specwar Knife VERY RARE


Here is an extremely rare Emerson Specwar Knife made under contract for NASA for use on the ISS. There were 30 of these knives ordered by NASA and they were delivered in 1999. The link to the knife is http://www.emersonknives.com/EK_Govnt_Contracts.html


Now for the cool part. When I emailed Emerson knives, I was told that all of the 30 NASA contract knives had the NASA logo laser engraved on the back of the blade. This knife didn't have any engraving, other than the Emerson logo on it, so I thought that it could have been a counterfeit piece.


Lucky for me that I did more research through Emerson and it turns out that this knife is 1 of 4 prototypes built by Emerson, then sent to New Mexico for evaluation. I don't know if this knife flew on a mission, I tend to doubt it because of the perfect condition of the knife, but it's such a rare piece that is never available to the public.


Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Apollo 11 Vintage Resin w/3 Flown Pieces


This is an unusual vintage resin piece from Apollo 11 that has 3 flown pieces embedded in it. The 3 pieces in this resin are Kapton foil, 1/2 of a cut ablator electric plug and a bolt that were all flown on the Apollo 11 command module. This resin has the most detail I've ever seen from an early 1970 made piece, it's beautifully done and it's in spectacular condition.


The real unusual thing about this resin are the details on the surface of it and that it has 3 flown pieces in it. Lastly, the nose cone was poured after the rest of the piece was finished, whereas most other similar resin pieces were left flat for a viewing window or tapered in a 1 piece pour into the mold. There were 5 separate pours necessary to make this resin and whoever made it, did a brilliant job creating it.