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Author
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Topic: Flown Atlas-Agena fragment on key chain
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dtemple
Member Posts: 729
From: Longview, Texas, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 07-12-2016 03:49 PM
   
From time to time I find on eBay a flown fragment from an Atlas-Agena attached to a key chain. Many years ago I believe I read the source of the fragments came from a booster which exploded during launch. Does anyone know with certainty the specific source of the fragments? Was there more than one source? |
mikej
Member Posts: 481
From: Germantown, WI USA
Registered: Jan 2004
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posted 07-12-2016 06:22 PM
I have two of these souvenirs (one a tie tack and one a lapel pin), both still attached to their cards.The front says: The Perfect Souvenir! Made from an Actual MissileThe souvenirs are made from the skin or shell of an actual fired Atlas Agena missile. This is the true thickness and consistency of the metal. The history of this particular Atlas Agena is provided on the card attached to your souvenir. Both of them have a piece of paper on the back (one stapled, one taped): Your missile piece was taken from the (skin) or outer shell of an Atlas Agena rocket.This rocket blasted off Pad 13 at Cape Kennedy at approximately 5:30 pm on 4 December 1971. It carried an experimental payload referred to as a "spy-in-the-sky satellite." It was a television carrying spy satellite which could keep track of particularly enemy movement in daylight or dark. The rocket veered off course early in flight and was destroyed by the Range Safety Officer. While the card doesn't specify the mission, Wikipedia lists the mission as an Atlas-Agena D SLV-3A (S/N 5503A) with the AFP-827 (Canyon-4) payload. |
thisismills
Member Posts: 263
From: Michigan
Registered: Mar 2012
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posted 07-12-2016 06:30 PM
An example of the tie-tac version below. The date on the back of the card points to the failed launch of a US spy satellite on December 4, 1971.I'm also interested in any information about who produced the cards.  
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CMikeW
Member Posts: 89
From: United States
Registered: Apr 2013
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posted 07-13-2016 12:55 PM
I have seen these fragments as both a tie tac and as just a fragment of the missile. They were once very common here as someone in a local antique store had bought a number of them at an estate sale. I believe the supply has finally been dispersed to the collector market. Many of them are beat up and yellowed from poor storage and some look like a dog or rodent has chewed on them. |
dtemple
Member Posts: 729
From: Longview, Texas, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 07-17-2016 08:34 PM
Thanks for the information. I knew someone - and probably more than one - on this forum had the answer. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 2913
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 07-17-2016 09:08 PM
My firm was able to acquire a bulk purchase of the exploded Atlas-Agena D rocket fragment pieces many years ago.They were produced as tie tack pins and key ring chains during the 1970's, however, it was never determined what company had produced the unusual souvenirs made from an exploded spy-satellite rocket carrier launched from the Cape in December 1971. The sample depicted here was one that came from my own stock since it contained transparent tape on the back of the souvenir descriptive card. Old Complex 13 was the launch site of the spy satellite along with 50 other Atlas-type rocket firings from 1958 to 1978. Pad 13 is known today as Landing Zone 1, a landing facility for recovering components-- currently the first stage of the Falcon 9 rocket booster--of SpaceX's reusable launch vehicles. |
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