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.

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.

Mercury Friendship 7 Launch Crew Gold Pin 1 of 20

This is a Mercury Friendship 7 10k gold pin made by LGB, just for the launch crew of John Glenn's 1st US orbital mission. The pin measures 1" along the orbit path, it comes in the original box and it's in perfect condition.

The gentleman who I purchased this from, helped design and build the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Lunar Module and Space Shuttle life support and cryo systems. I have photos of him in front of Alan Shepards Freedom 7 spacecraft after it was ready for shipping to the Cape, along with other photos of him helping during tests and on launch days during the Mercury program.

39 Vintage Resin Displays of Flown Apollo 7-17

Here's an incredible collection of vintage resin displays made up with a piece of flown kapton foil and ablator heatshield material from every manned Apollo spacecraft mission. These are from the collection of a North American Aviation engineer who inspected the inner pressure hull of every Apollo and space shuttle. These resin pieces were made by a friend of his at NAA in 1974 and according to this gentleman, there were only 3 of the complete sets on the wood and white plastic boards.

These displays were made with RTV for the molds and different sized light bulbs for the dome shape. Photographs of the mission logos were embedded in the resin after the foil & heatshield material was added, then the last clear layer was poured. A final white layer was added for the background and it took a lot of work to make these. The small white plastic display board resin pieces are 1" in diameter and the large Apollo 11 & 17 resin pieces are 5.5" in diameter. This is the 2nd largest collection of vintage resin pieces that I've been able to find.

Corporal Rocket Engine WOW !!!!!!!

Here's the latest addition to the collection, it's a very cool Corporal rocket engine, thanks to LtCDR Scott Schneewis, http://www.spaceaholic.com/, for ID'ing the engine. The Corporal rocket was designed as a surface to surface tactical nuclear weapon delivery system. JPL was the prime contractor that developed this rocket with Firestone. It was deployed to Germany as a front line nuclear defense weapon, to defend against a Russian attack, against western europe.

As a side note, this engine is a direct decendant of the WW2 German V-2. This is a liquid fueled engine, that burns fuming red nitric acid and hydrazine, which we all know is REALLY bad stuff. The big problem was that the Corporal had a 46% success rate, it took a long time to prepare for launch and with the fuel toxicity issue, made it difficult to use in real world scenarios.

I purchased this rocket engine from the grandson of a gentleman who worked at JPL on the design of this rocket. This engine is dated 1960, it was the last upgraded motor before the project was cancelled in 1963 and I can't begin to tell you how cool this is. I want to strap it to my bike and ride around the neighborhood with CO2 shooting out of the back.

The engine is 5ft tall, the engine bell is 28" in diameter, it weighs approx 150lbs and it's the coolest piece of hardware I've found in a long time. Unfortunately my wife's reaction, wasn't the same as my sons or mine. She could be heard throughout the house, when seeing it for the first time, "what the hell is this and how long is it going to be in my kitchen" ?!?!?!?!?!? I guess it doesn't go with the decor and our styles of decorating differ slightly. She likes modern chic and I like early space program.

One of my friends suggested that I put a lamp shade on it, so she wouldn't notice what it was. After I stopped laughing, I started looking for a place to get it out of the house. Another good friend wrote, "you are sooooooo getting a divorce" !!!!!

The specs of this rocket are:

JPL/Firestone SSM-A-17/M2/MGM-5 Corporal

Data for M2/M2A1 (MGM-5A/B)

Length: 13.8 m (45 ft 4 in)
Finspan: 2.1 m (7 ft)
Diameter: .76 m (30 in)
Weight: 5000 kg (11000 lb)
Speed: 3500 kmh (2200 mph)
Ceiling: 40 km (25 miles)
Range Min: 48 km (30 miles); Max: 130 km (80 miles)
Propulsion: JPL liquid-fueled rocket motor 20000 lbs up to 64 sec
Warhead: W-7 nuclear fission (20 kT)

Space Shuttle Flight Cabin Pressure Vessel Model

Here is a very rare scale model of the flight crew cabin pressure vessel for the space shuttle Columbia. This model shows where all of the welds are on the spacecraft, along with the dates (1974), when the model was built. This belonged to a gentleman who built all 5 of the space shuttles at the old NAA facility in Downey, Ca.

I've never seen anything like this model before and it was only used for a 3D reference when building the pressure vessel that comprised the crew cabin.

STS-1 Flown Flag

Here's a display that has an STS-1 flown flag glued to it and it's in mint condition.

The gentleman's name on the display worked at NAA in Downey, where he helped build the space shuttle pressure vessel flight cabin. He left NAA after the space shuttles were built and started his own aerospace company.

1963 Concept Model Lunar Module & Command Module Bell Labs

Here is an extremely rare model of the 1st concept for the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) and the Apollo Service & Command module. These are large scale models that measure 24" for the CSM and 17" for the LM.

These models were made for Bell Labs in 1963 and they are among the rarest contractor models known. There were 2 other identical models with this one found in the garage of a NASA manager. According to the gentleman I bought this from, the paint was peeling, so he threw the other 2 in the garbage. Yeah........my thoughts exactly.

These models are made with a wood interior, an overlayer of hard plastic shell, then hand painted. The most interesting things about these is that there's no hatch for the LM for the crew to get out and the CM shows each astronaut sitting in different directions.

After talking with several well known collectors of contractor models, none had ever seen anything like these and one expert said he had heard about them, but never saw one before. This box for this model has 6 different colored dots, similar to the dot system that is commonly seen on NASA surplus and there's a tag on it that says "Apollo Model #3". I'm assuming that this model is #3 and that the other 2 which were thrown out, were models #1 & 2.

Apollo 11 Coin Minted with Flown Dies

This is an Apollo 11 coin, minted with the dies that flew on the Apollo 11 spacecraft, then used to make this coin. It's a rare piece that was primarily given to the astronauts, but other than that, I don't know the history behind it.

This particular coin was presented to a North American Aviation worker by Mike Collins after the Apollo 11 mission and it's in mint condition.

Gemini Spacecraft Boilerplate

This is a very rare Gemini boilerplate that is a 1:1 scale model of the actual spacecraft. These boilerplates were made to train the astronauts, recovery crews, engineers and others, in all aspects of the Gemini spacecraft. The Gemini missions are often overlooked by many, but it was this program that taught NASA how do orbital mechanics, rendezvous between 2 spacecraft, long term spaceflight, walking in space, working in space and the other skills required to go to the moon and back.

A great website to see what happened to the US spacecraft and boilerplates is http://www.americanspacecraft.com/ .

This Gemini boilerplate is serial number MSC 312, it was used by the 79th Aerospace Rescue & Recovery Squadron and it trained the Gemini recovery divers in the N. Calif ocean. It weighs 3500 lbs, it's 8.5' long, the heatshield area is 8' in diameter and I found it in a N. Calif. cemetery. It was common for the Mercury, Gemini & Apollo boilerplate models to be sold for scrap or given to schools or playgrounds, after the program was completed.

I wanted to keep it because it's such a rare artifact, but when I offered it to museums for a loan, nobody was interested, so I ended up selling it. My wife told me that if I bought it home, there better be enough room for a bed, because I would be moving into it. As a result, it's headed to a good home back east.

Neil Armstrong Vintage Autograph 1962

Neil Armstrong Vintage Autograph 1962

This is a pristine NASA glossy autographed photo of Neil Armstrong when he was first selected to be an astronaut in 1962. This photo was inscribed to the wife of Grant Lathe, who was a NASA graphic artist and a friend to the astronauts. A funny thing about this photo, it was one of the earliest photos he autographed after his selection as astronaut.

Neil signed this photo on the black suit, which doesn't show up well, unless you look at it from an angle. I've been told bya few long time collectors, that this was one of the first autographs Neil did on this photo, because he didn't realize that it wouldn't show up well. After this photo was autographed, Neil always signed over his head or under the NASA logo. Regardless, the autograph is a gorgeous example of his vintage signature.

Armstrong Autograph 1962-63

Neil Armstrong Vintage Autograph 1962-63

This is a pristine 1962 NASA glossy photograph of the 2nd group (The New Nine) of astronauts right after their selection in 1962 and it's signed by Neil Armstrong on the front and Tom Stafford on the back.

I bought the collection of Grant Lathe from his family at the 2006 San Antonio UACC show. Grant was a NASA graphic artist and a friend to all of the Mercury, Gemini & Apollo astronauts. There were hundreds of vintage signed photos in Grant's collection, as well as dozens of examples of early NASA concept drawings, many hundreds of NASA photos and publications.

The beautiful Santa Claus poster shown here was done by Grant before John Glenn's Friendship 7 mission.

Apollo 17 Flown Cereal Cube

Apollo 17 Flown Cereal Cube

Apollo 17 Flown Cereal Cube

I bought this from a guy on Ebay, who purchased the estate of a woman, that went into an assisted living home. The seller knew nothing about it, other than what was on the tag, which meant there was no historical provenance that it flew in space, let alone around the moon. When I contacted the seller about the history of this resin, he told me how to contact her family. They gave me this woman's number in the home and after calling a few times, I was able to talk with her.

When I spoke to this woman about the cereal cube, she told me the history about it and she was a sweetheart to talk to. We chatted for almost an hour, she was disappointed that her family sold it, considering how important it was to their father.

It turns out that her husband was an RCA engineer that helped teach the astronauts how to operate the electronics on the Apollo spacecraft. She told me stories about having many of the astronauts over for dinner when they were in town and how happy they were to have a home cooked meal. This delightful woman wrote me the nicest letter describing the provenance to this piece.

She told me that this cereal cube was her husbands pride & joy and that he had it displayed on his desk since receiving it in the 70's. This cereal cube was given to her husband by Ron Evans after the Apollo 17 mission and this RCA engineer created this resin display. The greatest aspect about this piece, besides being flown on Apollo 17, is that there are 6 layers of resin, which is a strong telltale sign that it's a vintage piece. Modern lucite and resin displays don't have visible layers in the piece, whereas the older resin pieces needed to dry, before adding another layer when embeding an item.

Another fun aspect about this piece is the mold that was used. The shape shows the gentleman used a Gerber baby food jar as a mold and it must have taken him 4-6 days to make this one piece. If you look carefully, you can see the seams on the sides of the resin from the Gerber glass jar.

I love home made resin pieces, because they show how the smallest artifact was held in such high esteem by the people who worked so hard to make the space program a success. I assume that this cereal cube only flew in lunar orbit with Ron Evans and that it didn't make it to the lunar surface.

Lunar Module Kapton Foil Cover

This is an 8" x 3.5" piece of Kapton foil that was made, but obviously not used, for a lunar module. This patch was made to cover over electric ports and other areas that the engineers needed access to, during the building of the lunar modules. When the LM was finished, these patches would cover over the access points to protect them from exposure to the suns heat in space and on the moon. There are 18 layers of Kapton foil on this patch, it's marked with the LDW 280 Grumman stock number and it's dated 1968.

I don't know which LM this was made for, but if you have anyway to find out by the LDW number, please let me know.

Lunar Module Kapton Foil Cover