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Author Topic:   Freeman Library (Houston): 1966 time capsule
Robert Pearlman
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Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 04-20-2016 06:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
collectSPACE
NASA spacecraft found in 50-year-old time capsule

The first item pulled out from the newly-unearthed time capsule was a small, conical piece of black plastic.

"A Mercury capsule!" someone called out from among the several dozen spectators.

"Apollo!" another among the crowd declared.

In fact, it was a model of a Gemini spacecraft, the two-man capsule that NASA was flying at the time the archive was buried outside the Clear Lake Theatre in Houston on April 20, 1966. Following the Gemini out of the ground were the parts for its launch vehicle, the Titan II rocket, and a stand for the vintage desktop model.

Unfortunately for the Freeman Memorial Library (or as it is known today, the Clear Lake City-County Freeman Branch Library), the benefactor of the time capsule's contents as was engraved on the half-century-old plaque that covered it, next out of the buried steel box were several buckets full of water.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 04-21-2016 08:35 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Update: They found the Gemini 5 flown flag!
The flag was found by Lauren Meyers, the archivist at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, after the contents of the time capsule were submerged in clean water to begin their conservation.

"That is probably better preserved than most anything else in here," said Jim Johnson with the Freeman Library.

The flag was accompanied by a letter in astronaut Charles Conrad's handwriting that stated: "This American flag was carried aboard Gemini V, 21-29 August 1965, for 120 revolutions of the Earth."

MCroft04
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Posts: 1634
From: Smithfield, Me, USA
Registered: Mar 2005

posted 04-21-2016 08:30 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for MCroft04   Click Here to Email MCroft04     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Lauren is an amazing person, working in the library at University of Houston at Clear Lake. Way to go Lauren!

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