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Author
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Topic: 190673570045: Purported GT-10 Titan fragment
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atlas5guy
Member Posts: 33
From:
Registered: Jun 2007
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posted 05-06-2012 05:56 PM
   
An unusual item has turned up on eBay this week that is claimed to be a recovered fragment of the GT-10 Titan II launch vehicle. The artifact originated from the Air Force Space Museum at the Cape in 1970.It is mounted on a printed display certificate, and the cover letter (signed by museum director Donald Engel) described it as 'a fragment that impacted the ocean and floated' and was recovered. Are you familiar with this artifact, Ken Havekotte? There is no record of any pieces of the GT-10 Titan being recovered, so I am thinking that maybe the metal bit was actually from the GT-5 launch vehicle that was definitely recovered by the Navy in 1965. Can anybody shed any light on this artifact? This reminds me of the misidentified 'piece of Alan Shepard's Redstone launch vehicle' at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. The placard implies that the jet vane came from Shepard's Redstone, and it took a few moments to realize that the vane most likely originated with the aborted MR-1 mission — the one where they launched the escape tower, not the rocket. Nobody (so-called curators) are perfect... |
Headshot
Member Posts: 864
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 05-06-2012 07:43 PM
As I recall, the upper portion of the Gemini X Titan rocket's first stage blew apart when the second stage engine ignited. I believe that observers thought that the first stage itself had exploded, but I have read no account of any pieces being recovered. |
Rick Boos
Member Posts: 851
From: Celina, Ohio
Registered: Feb 2000
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posted 05-14-2012 10:39 AM
I have seen other Gemini 10 presentations with first stage booster fragments mounted on them in some of the very early space memorabilia auctions, so I tend to believe it is authentic. I would not know what office or who at NASA that could verify this item but would tend to belive that there should be some mention of this in some of the NASA SP publications on Project Gemini, or even contacting the Air Force or Dept. of the Navy. I really don't believe that it was confused with the Gemini 5 recovered partial first stage given the Air Force COA. | |
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