Apollo 15 Flown Stowage Locker Description Tag

This is an aluminum foil plate that was attached to a stowage locker door from the Apollo 15 command module that carried Dave Scott, Jim Irwin and Al Worden to the moon from July 26- August 7, 1971.

The Apollo 15 misson was the first "J" mission that was able to stay on the lunar surface for 2 days 19 hours, allowing Scott & Irwin to conduct 3 moon walks and be the first mission to use the Lunar Rover.

This locker tag was removed by Jim Creagle who worked at North American Aviation and sold his extensive collection to Ricky Lanclos. This comes with both a Jim Creagle & Ricky Lanclos COA.

Gemini 8 Heatshield 4" w/paperwork

Gemini 8 Heatshield 4" w/paperwork

This is a 4" round section of the Gemini 8 heatshield. This piece, like all the other round sections I've seen, has a hole drilled in the center of it, almost like a coring saw that's used to cut holes for door knobs. These 4" round sections are the largest pieces I've seen from the GT-8 mission and at the San Diego Aerospace Museum, there is the opposite side trim piece of a cutout like this that matches perfectly.

I obtained this beautiful piece from the grandson of an MOL project manager, along with a mint condition Topping MOL model, 4 vintage Zippo lighters from the space program, all of this managers paperwork, awards, photos and commendations. This also comes with a very nice vintage hand written letter explaining the provenance of this piece, by the MOL manager. This heatshield was in a sealed bag from the 1960's and opened by me in 2005 after purchasing it. Notarized letter on file.

Gemini 8 Heatshield 1966 Lucite Display

Gemini 8 Heatshield 1966 Lucite Display

Here is a very rare vintage lucite that contains a piece of the Gemini 8 heatshield. This was 1 of 50 made by a gentleman who worked on the Gemini 8 spacecraft wiring harness at the McDonnell Douglas plant in St. Louis. The front was broken off by this guys kids playing with it back in the 60's. What's really cool are the small windows that were part of the mold and they're located just below the broken nose. The mold used was not nearly as professional as the North American Aviation resin & lucite displays of the same vintage.

Gemini 8 was Dave Scott & Neil Armstrongs first spaceflight. It was the first docking of 2 spacecraft in space in history. Shortly after the Gemini 8 spacecraft docked with the Agena vehicle, both of them started a slow tumbling motion. Thinking that the Agena was the reason for the spinning, Armstrong & Scott undocked from the Agena, only to discover that it was the Gemini with a misfiring RCS thruster.

The flight had to be aborted when one of the Gemini's RCS thrusters malfunctioned, sending the spacecraft into a 1 RPS spin. The astronauts came within 10-20 seconds of passing out while tumbling on all 3 axis and they came closer to losing their lives in space, than any other crew, with the exception of the Apollo 13 astronauts. It took both pilots about 20-30 minutes to bring the spacecraft under control using their re-entry RCS thrusters, all while being out of touch from mission control.

There seems to be more heatshield material available from the Gemini 8 spacecraft, than any other Gemini mission. This is probably due to the GT-8 was the only Gemini spacecraft to have the entire heatshield removed, after returning to earth. This was done to reach the wiring harness, in an attempt to determine what caused the electric short in the RCS system. I've heard a few stories about the piles of broken GT-8 heatshield material being offered to anyone who wanted it. If only there really was a time machine !!!!

Apollo 11 Flown Kapton Foil

The other side of the Apollo 11 command module flown Kapton foil. Eventhough the gold side is almost always displayed on artifact cards, it was the silver side of the foil that was exposed to space.

Apollo 11 Flown Kapton Foil

Here are some pieces of flown kapton foil from the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, that carried Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin to the moon & back. This piece was obtained by a sailor who was a Quartermaster on the USS Hornet when the Apollo 11 spacecraft was recovered on July 24, 1969. This sailor wrote me a very funny letter describing the horsetrading that went on between he and the NAA recovery crew.

Notarized letter on file.