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Author
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Topic: STS-135: Official Flight Kit and secret souvenirs
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-06-2011 06:51 AM
   
collectSPACE Final space shuttle flight's secret (and not so secret) souvenir stash The final crew to fly on the space shuttle has a secret in store for everyone watching when they pause during their mission to offer a tribute to NASA's 30 year shuttle program. The crew members have some special souvenirs packed on shuttle Atlantis, but what they are, they aren't saying... ALSO: View the full and illustrated inventory for the STS-135 Official Flight Kit. |
jimsz
Member Posts: 616
From:
Registered: Aug 2006
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posted 07-06-2011 11:07 AM
There are a minimum of 31,343 items being carried on the shuttle for handouts.A bit extreme and costly? |
Fezman92
Member Posts: 1031
From: New Jersey, USA
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 07-06-2011 11:23 AM
What are "Payload customers"? I thought that there wasn't any more private experiments and stuff flown on the shuttle. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-06-2011 11:44 AM
Payload customers are the NASA, contractor and international project offices responsible for equipment on board the shuttle (and in some cases, station). In this case, the offices funding the STS-135 payload. |
BMckay
Member Posts: 3218
From: MA, USA
Registered: Sep 2002
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posted 07-06-2011 12:10 PM
I love these lists. It shows the diversity of stuff flown. When you look at the list you can tell where astronauts are from, where they went to school, hobbies and interests.You have to love how many items they can pack. This mission must have kept those people real busy. I have been really lucky to have received some flown items. They are the neatest part of my collection. |
Fezman92
Member Posts: 1031
From: New Jersey, USA
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 07-06-2011 12:15 PM
I was happy to see that the Franklin Institute is having something flown. It's nice to see that there is stuff given out that doesn't stay "in house" so to speak, that individuals and museums have stuff flown for them. |
328KF
Member Posts: 1234
From:
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 07-06-2011 10:29 PM
I found some of these items quite interesting:The U.S. Navy and Air Force astronaut wings for "agency presentation." With only one of each, who could these be intended for? The Apollo 1 patch. I think they could have found an original crew version with a little effort. And 15 STS-86 patches? What is the significance of so many examples of a patch from one of the Mir docking missions? |
David Carey
Member Posts: 782
From:
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted 07-06-2011 11:40 PM
A great "illuminated manuscript" Robert, thanks. Plenty of stuff to be sure but fun to get an inside view of the (sadly) last batch of flown mementos for what will likely be quite a while.As a point of perspective, was the total weight of the manifested OFK/PPK material ever mentioned? Not even sure why I'm curious but can't sort out if it is 20, 100, or 1000+ pounds of ephemera. |
davidcwagner
Member Posts: 798
From: Albuquerque, New Mexico
Registered: Jan 2003
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posted 07-07-2011 12:32 AM
Any Robbins Medallions? |
Fezman92
Member Posts: 1031
From: New Jersey, USA
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 07-07-2011 01:24 AM
How long after a mission are all of the OFK items given out? |
SkyMan1958
Member Posts: 867
From: CA.
Registered: Jan 2011
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posted 07-07-2011 01:48 AM
VERY interesting stuff Robert, thank you for posting this!!!By the way, would you happen to have any links to any of the Apollo OFKs? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-07-2011 05:22 AM
quote:
Originally posted by 328KF:
The Apollo 1 patch. I think they could have found an original crew version with a little effort.
The illustration for that entry was my doing and just for example. It's unknown what version of the patch they have on board. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-07-2011 05:29 AM
quote:
Originally posted by davidcwagner:
Any Robbins Medallions?
Robbins medals (or, as reportedly is the case today, the metal ingots to mint the Robbins medals post-flight) are typically carried in the astronauts' personal preference kits, not the official flight kit. (Early flights, like STS-1 however, did fly Robbins in the OFK). |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-07-2011 05:30 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Fezman92:
How long after a mission are all of the OFK items given out?
Distribution of all of the OFK contents can take years, but the first pieces are generally ready about a month after the flight, coinciding with when the crew begins its post-flight visits to NASA facilities, their hometowns and other tour stops. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-07-2011 05:39 AM
quote:
Originally posted by David Carey:
...last batch of flown mementos for what will likely be quite a while.
There are OFKs for each of the International Space Station expedition crews as well, and those will continue. Typically, they have been launched on Progress or shuttle, and returned by shuttle. I assume now they'll be returning on Dragon cargo vehicles once those flights get underway later this year/early next year (Soyuz typically doesn't have the weight allocation to allow for such). quote:
As a point of perspective, was the total weight of the manifested OFK/PPK material ever mentioned?
Federal regulations limited the PPKs to a total of 1.5 pounds each. There is no weight limit (at least by federal code) for the OFK, but all of it must fit into a two cubic foot container (although on this flight and on the last few missions, NASA has flown additional OFK mementos in separate containers, either in the payload bay, or as on STS-135, inside the multipurpose logistics module (MPLM). |
Cliff Lentz
Member Posts: 655
From: Philadelphia, PA USA
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 07-15-2011 10:48 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Fezman92:
I was happy to see that the Franklin Institute is having something flown.
I am as well. I met Chris Ferguson there last year at an event. He told me he developed his love of science and aviation there in the Fels Planetarium as I did! |
Fezman92
Member Posts: 1031
From: New Jersey, USA
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 07-15-2011 10:55 AM
I hope Ferguson will visit to present them with their item. Never went to the Planetarium itself. I'm in Vineland so we don't get up there a lot, plus I'm a bit old for the stuff at the Institute. They are having a shuttle respective in September that I will try to attend. |
Cliff Lentz
Member Posts: 655
From: Philadelphia, PA USA
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 07-15-2011 02:20 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Fezman92:
I'm in Vineland so we don't get up there a lot, plus I'm a bit old for the stuff at the Institute.
The Institute has been having some great temp shows in the past few years - Titantic, King Tut, Pirate Exhibit, Body Works, Cleopatra, Mummies, Star Trek, Star Wars! It's well worth following their website for coming events and they have a great IMAX theater that shows current films as well as documentaries. No, I don't work there, but as you can see, I spend a lot of time there! |
Fezman92
Member Posts: 1031
From: New Jersey, USA
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 07-15-2011 02:31 PM
I've been to all of those except for Titanic, Pirate exhibit, Bodyworks, Cleopatra and Mummies. I saw the Da Vinci and the King Tut exhibits. I was talking about their permanent exhibits, not the traveling ones. The permanent ones for the most part seem to be for younger people. Okay, the train room is cool. I don't go up to it that much because: 1) Parking is a hassle 2) Finding the parking there is a bit hard. When I went up for the Da Vinci exhibit, my friend and I kept missing the parking sign so we went around Logan Square about four times trying to find parking. But I am going to go up either this month or next month to the Observatory. |
Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 07-15-2011 04:04 PM
I've found parking at the Franklin Institute not to be a problem, despite the relatively few times I've been there. Can't beat having a parking garage underneath the building.Getting from there onto 676 in order to get on the Ben Franklin Bridge and 70, now that's a challenge to me. Looking forward to Ferguson (or perhaps, all of the 135 crew) at the Institute, or maybe also at Drexel. Hard to believe that I missed out on Ferguson simply because I didn't want to do any more driving that day (I had driven to north Jersey in the hopes of seeing Don Thomas, but he left early and was gone by the time I got there...!) |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-15-2011 04:15 PM
The crew members have some special souvenirs packed on shuttle Atlantis, but what they are, they aren't saying... Nor would they say today when I asked them again during their in-flight joint crew news conference. Commander Chris Ferguson told me... "We have a special item we're going to leave behind in what hopefully is a very thought provoking and emotional farewell ceremony that we have as the space shuttle prepares to leave the International Space Station for the final time. I'd just ask you to perhaps hold on until that moment and you'll get a look at what we have in store." But then just a couple of hours later, President Obama let the cat — or rather the flag — out of the bag... President Obama reveals astronauts' secret souvenir on final shuttle mission During a call to the International Space Station Friday, President Barack Obama revealed that a special American flag was flying on board the final space shuttle mission currently docked to the orbiting complex. But the presence of the flag, which also flew on the first shuttle mission in 1981, was being held as a secret by the astronauts, who planned to debut it later in the flight.... |
328KF
Member Posts: 1234
From:
Registered: Apr 2008
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posted 07-17-2011 09:43 AM
So was this a planned disclosure by the President or do we think the crew was caught off guard when he revealed it? Seems they went to some length to keep it quiet up until he mentioned it.Obviously somebody else knew about it and passed the fact on to the White House, perhaps making it into a quick briefing the President got just before the phonecall(?) |
Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 07-17-2011 06:29 PM
And should a commercial spacecraft make it to ISS, is the flag theirs to keep or will it have to be turned over to NASA? |
GACspaceguy
Member Posts: 2474
From: Guyton, GA
Registered: Jan 2006
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posted 07-17-2011 07:09 PM
The way I heard it on the NASA channel today was that it would be given back to NASA to go on the first flight of a new craft leaving LEO to a future destination. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-17-2011 07:53 PM
You heard correct. Here's commander Chris Ferguson's remarks on the subject: In a few short years, the United States will launch its own indigenous vehicle once again. We want to return this flag back to Earth with that vehicle when it comes again — only to be returned to space once again when we leave low Earth orbit and return to a lunar, asteroid or perhaps Martian destination. |
DCCollector
Member Posts: 227
From: Washington, DC USA
Registered: Dec 2006
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posted 07-17-2011 10:35 PM
collectSPACE.com got a nice mention on tonight's local news on DC's NBC affiliate, in a short story about the "stuff" that Atlantis took into space on its last mission. |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 07-18-2011 07:08 AM
Neat! Nice to hear our article/inventory is getting picked up... |
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