posted 11-14-2010 12:40 PM               

Nineteen of the artifacts have flown in space on Gemini 8, Skylab 2, and several STS (Shuttle) missions. The artifacts tell the story of how astronauts live in space. Included are personal hygiene items such as a Gemini Survival Kit, a washcloth from the first Space Shuttle, STS-1 Columbia, clothing and bio-belt worn on Skylab 2 by astronaut Paul Weitz, space food from STS-27 Atlantis, and an actual heat shield fragment from Gemini 8 which carried astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott into orbit on March 16, 1966.

Among the articles are a shirt worn by Gregory in space, part of a detonated bolt which held a rocket booster in place on the launch pad, a disposable interface used to grow protein crystals in microgravity, back-up checklists and some of his personal hygiene items that he used during the research mission...

Also on display are Gregory's NASA jet flight suit, helmet, oxygen mask and boots he wore as a T-38 test pilot. Having flown in excess of 40 types of aircraft, Gregory has logged over 5,000 hours of flight time and more than 400 hours in space. The Endeavour STS-67 mission completed 262 orbits and traveled nearly seven million miles, establishing a new mission duration record of 16 days, 15 hours, 8 minutes and 46 seconds. The primary payload was the ASTRO telescope.

"It is very generous of Mr. Gregory to loan Challenger these items," said Kari Sliva, Executive Director Challenger Space Center Arizona. "It's a perfect match to our Smithsonian collection which features the various eras of manned space exploration from the original Mercury 7 astronauts to the Space Shuttle program. We'll use his checklists in particular because mission checklists are also a critical part of our simulated missions and field trips. It will be exciting to show students and visitors the real thing so they can see the correlation between our student activities and NASA protocols," Sliva said.