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Author
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Topic: Mercury, Gemini personal preference kits
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SkyMan1958
Member Posts: 867
From: CA.
Registered: Jan 2011
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posted 08-14-2018 08:27 PM
   
I'm trying to find out this information for the article I'm writing for the American Numismatic Association's July 2019 edition of their magazine; The Numismatist.Does anyone know when during the Mercury/Gemini era PPKs and PPK lists became somewhat standardized? By this I mean did NASA have a specific weight or size limit for personal items to be brought aboard a mission during this era? Clearly by the Apollo era things became much more standardized, particularly after Apollo 15. I have certainly seen PPK bags for latter Gemini missions, but were there PPK bags etc. for the earlier missions? Also, the earliest PPK list I've seen is Schirra's PPK list for Gemini 6. Does anyone know of any earlier PPK lists or when it became standard for an astronaut to write down a list of what he was planning to bring aboard a given mission? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42981
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 08-14-2018 08:46 PM
Up until Apollo 17, the policies regarding the preference kits were largely informal and limited to a private agreement between Deke Slayton and the astronauts. Based on interviews with Slayton and others, we know the Gemini astronauts would jot down the items they intended to fly and Slayton would sign off on it. As a fellow astronaut, Slayton respected the crew members' desire for privacy and refused to share the contents with others, inside or outside of NASA. Wally Schirra's Gemini 6 list is public today because he chose to sell it in 2006. As for size and mass, my impression is that seemed to be a function of the pouches that were fabricated to hold the items. | |
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