SkyMan augers in.

[SkyMan]

So, it's supposed to be a bad economy out there, eh? Coulda' fooled me in the auctions I was involved in the last 2 days.

 

As many of you know, I'm trying to put together a "series" of flown items from all the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo flights... 27 flights in all (6, 10 and 11 respectively). It's that time of year again when space memorabilia auctions occur. Yesterday was RegencySuperior's and todays was Heritage's. I was mainly interested in Heritage's auction items, so I didn't bid too seriously yesterday... only one item, a train token for a special train taking personnel to Peenemunde (the German rocket research center). Didn't get it.

 

Today there were 5 items that I was particularly interested in and I only won 1 of them (by far the least expensive), a Gemini 10 flown Fliteline medal. The item I was most interested in (as someone who has a Ph.D. specializing in satellite imagery) was a satellite photo map of the Apollo 16 landing site on the Moon, that was flown to the Moon's surface in the Apollo 16 Lunar Module. It was at the tail end of the auction so I had to not bid on some previous lots in order to save up for it. Still, on the 4 specific lots that went before it that I was interested in, I was willing to go over high end estimates. They included Jim Lovell's Log for Gemini 7 (estimate $10 - $12,500 plus ~20% commission; I bid through $16,000 and didn't get it). The Apollo 16 photo map was estimated to go for $10 - 12,000 (plus ~20% commission). I bid up through $26,000 and still didn't get it. Pisser.

 

Oh well, on the bright side of things, as several of my earlier lots fell through I was able to do some bidding on some 2nd tier items of interest to me. In addition to the flown Fliteline medal I was able to pick up flown flight patches (with appropriate provenance material) for Apollo 14 and Apollo 17. I also picked up 2 signed photos; liftoff and landing, of the 1st space shuttle flight, and a so called insurance cover for Apollo 17. Basically the covers are envelopes signed by the crew of a flight and date stamped on the liftoff day. If the flight blows up or whatever, the covers could be sold by the crew's families, so essentially the covers were created as a form of life insurance. Thank God that none were ever needed for that purpose, and they have filtered onto the market over the years. The one I got today has a pen drawing on the rear of it by well known space artist Robert McCall. It is the ONLY one I've ever seen with a drawing on it.

 

So, in order to keep this numismatic, let's start with the medal. So called "Fliteline" medals were carried on Gemini flights. If you are interested in learning a little bit more about them here is a link.

 

Fliteline medals

 

The most commonly accepted number is that 100 - 200 of them were created for each Gemini flight. Of these it is estimated that 90 were sterling silver and 10 were gold plated sterling silver. On the obverse they were medallic representations of the mission patch, on the reverse they showed the mission duration. For Gemini 10 the design represents rendezvousing with the Agena vehicle which was then used to boost the Gemini into higher orbit. Also during the flight Michael Collins was to repeatedly use a modified sextant as a navigational tool to attempt via charting stars to calculate where they were. (He basically thought it was a TOTAL waste of time).

 

 

 

Here is the Apollo 14 flown mission patch;

 

 

Here is the Apollo 17 flown mission patch;

 

 

 

 

Here is the insurance cover (NOT flown);

 

 

 

 

So, while I got wiped out in the items of most interest to me, I did manage to pick up a few fun things.

[robec1347]

Nice pickups Sy. Your space museum continues to fill up the East Wing of your compound. Still plenty more out there to pickup.

[physics-fan3.14]

So how far along are you in terms of completeing your goal of one flown item from each mission? Some cool items, and your space collection is highly enviable for someone like me

[bsshog40]

Those are nice pickups there Sy. There must be someone out there that wanted the others worse than you huh? Maybe they'll get tired of them and you'll see them in auction again another day!!

[kryptonitecomics]

Way to go buddy.... (worship)

[SkyMan]

Thanks guys, glad you like them.

 

So how far along are you in terms of completeing your goal of one flown item from each mission? Some cool items, and your space collection is highly enviable for someone like me

 

So far I've got 3 of 6 Mercury, including one of the two biggies, I've got a piece of Glenn's Atlas booster. I have yet to see anything flown on Shepard's flight... I wouldn't be surprised if the Smithsonian pretty much sucked that up. I've got 5 of 10 of the Geminis, and 8 of 11 of the Apollos. I still need to get at least one Apollo object that was on a lunar lander.