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Author
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Topic: White room gags and other astronaut humor
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LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-15-2013 11:39 AM
  
Neil Armstrong and David Scott with their Gemini 8 shoe phone gag gift. I think the tag reads ECE Emergency Communication Earphone. It sure came in handy on that flight. |
SkyMan1958
Member Posts: 880
From: CA.
Registered: Jan 2011
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posted 06-15-2013 01:19 PM
Gordo Cooper and Jim Rathmann smuggled a miniature bottle of Cutty Sark and some cigarettes aboard Wally Schirra's Sigma 7 flight. |
Headshot
Member Posts: 891
From: Vancouver, WA, USA
Registered: Feb 2012
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posted 06-15-2013 02:06 PM
quote:
Originally posted by LM-12:
Armstrong and Scott with their Gemini 8 shoe phone gag gift.
Neither Guenter Wendt's nor David Scott's book mentions the gag gift, which surprised me as I thought no crew was immune to gags, including Armstrong's. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-17-2013 10:45 AM
Mike Collins was carrying a package wrapped in brown paper (probably the fish) on the Apollo 11 crew walkout. That brown package can be seen in these two film still photos: 1 | 2 |
golddog
Member Posts: 210
From: australia
Registered: Feb 2008
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posted 06-17-2013 06:38 PM
No doubt about it! As per Collin's autobiography, the fish is definitely in the bag. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-19-2013 06:44 PM
A launch day gag by Wally Schirra for the Gemini 3 crew. Photo 65-H-437 is dated March 23. Looks like they are in the suiting up trailer. Astronauts Virgil I. (Gus) Grissom left and John W. Young have a good laugh on the morning of the GT-3 mission. Astronaut Walter M. Schirra Jr., command pilot for the backup crew greeted the two GT-3 crew members dressed in an old and somewhat battered training suit and told them, "In case either one of you don't want to go this morning, I'm your backup."  |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2458
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 06-24-2013 12:40 AM
I'm surprised nobody has yet mentioned Thomas Stafford's match to light the rocket on Gemini 9. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-24-2013 10:53 AM
Here is a photo of that gag. The caption reads: Gemini 9 at last got off the ground 6/3 and maybe the giant match Tom Stafford carried with him helped do the trick. Stafford was handed the "match", a stick with a red electric bulb on the end, by astronaut chief Deke Slayton when he and Gene Cernan arrived in the white room for the launch. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 06-26-2013 01:13 AM
The Gemini 10 crew was given a pair of giant pliers in the white room just before boarding their spacecraft.The story behind the pliers is discussed in this flown items thread. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 09-05-2013 10:02 AM
Notice the ejection seat leg strap in this Gemini 11 launch day photo. The last line on the sign looks like "CM3 & CM4 are next".Here is the same photo from another source. |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 2983
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 10-03-2013 12:59 PM
I've got a few Guenter "gag gifts." One of my favorites is an "Lovell & Aldrin Bank of Pad 19" large presentation bank draft to Guenter Wendt for "DM 1,000,000" and signed boldly by the GT-12 crew. It was first dated Nov. 9, 1966, crossed out, and with a second (later crossed out) Nov. 10th date. Finally, it was dated with the actual launch date of the nation's final 2-man Gemini spaceflight on Nov. 11th. The check number is "No. GT-12" with a another bank number or identification at bottom of "GLVSN-62-12567." It was "For Unemployment Compensation" to Wendt as he was planning to leave the space program after the Gemini program ended. But not to be, as Guenter came back to the Cape/KSC for the Apollo 7 flight, at the request of his good friend Wally Schirra, commander of the first-to-fly Apollo mission. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-03-2013 01:38 PM
Is the suit tech carrying that "bank draft" in photo S66-59966? |
Ken Havekotte
Member Posts: 2983
From: Merritt Island, Florida, Brevard
Registered: Mar 2001
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posted 10-03-2013 02:29 PM
Yes, LM-12, the suit tech is carrying the gag bank draft, but Lovell has with him another gag gift that he carried with him up into the white room.It was a trip ticket, signed or validated by the spacecraft launch pad and closeout crews, for admittance of the flight crew into the Gemini 12 spacecraft. You can also see a larger portion of the gag ticket in a wire photo that I have of Lovell walking up the gantry ramp of Pad 19, but also on the same photo LM-12 had depicted here. As LM-12 has pointed out, right behind Aldrin, is a closeout crewman carrying some things in front of him, one of which, is the actual make-believe bank draft. If you look closely, you can see the top portion of the comical check in front of him. But there is another photo from NASA with a full image of the gag bank presentation while inside the white room atop Pad 19 itself. It depicts Lovell showing off the prank one million dollar check to closeout and spacecraft crew members. The photo number for it is 66-H-1425 released on the same day as launch; Nov. 11, 1966. Perhaps there are other photos out there, some that I might not be aware of, depicting the gag check and trip ticket. |
Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member Posts: 3446
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 10-03-2013 07:25 PM
I would like to see the "launch passes" the STS-95 crew used to prank John Glenn and Pedro Duque. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-03-2013 08:50 PM
It looks like the suit tech is also carrying a small brown package, probably the same package that Buzz Aldrin is holding in this white room photo. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 10-04-2013 12:04 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
But there is another photo from NASA with a full image of the gag bank presentation while inside the white room atop Pad 19 itself.
The quality is not very good, but there is such a photo in the November 25, 1966 issue of the Space News Roundup on page 4. |
p51
Member Posts: 1658
From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011
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posted 11-15-2013 07:11 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Hart Sastrowardoyo:
I would like to see the "launch passes" the STS-95 crew used to prank Glenn and Duque.
Wasn't that done to other first-time crew as well? I seem to recall that being done to someone else, too.But yeah, I'd love to see those... |
Obviousman
Member Posts: 438
From: NSW, Australia
Registered: May 2005
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posted 01-25-2014 03:17 PM
Is there a compiled list of these gags anywhere? For example: - MR-3 - Crayons / "No handball" sign
- MR-4 - etc
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YankeeClipper
Member Posts: 622
From: Dublin, Ireland
Registered: Mar 2011
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posted 04-19-2014 08:11 AM
Can anyone decipher the meaning of Tom BLFSPKT and Gene's A.T.D.A. Locator in these Gemini 9 hatch door gag signs? |
canyon42
Member Posts: 238
From: Ohio
Registered: Mar 2006
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posted 04-19-2014 09:37 AM
Well, the ATDA was the Agena target vehicle ("Augmented Target Docking Adaptor," or some such thing). Dunno about the sign on the left. |
David Carey
Member Posts: 802
From:
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted 04-19-2014 09:50 AM
Have a look at this for a description and more background.I'd never heard of it/him but apparently a reference to Joe BLFSPKT, a "hard-luck cartoon character." |
PeterO
Member Posts: 402
From: North Carolina
Registered: Mar 2002
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posted 04-19-2014 10:13 AM
This Photo of the Week posting explains the sign. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-11-2019 10:17 AM
More Gemini 12 gag photos in the White Room from the National Archives at Atlanta (via Facebook): 
It looks like the sign reads "Last Chance To Throw It Away" on the basket that backup pilot Gene Cernan is holding. Can't make out what the cartoon says on Aldrin's helmet.
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 43576
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 08-11-2019 12:02 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Hart Sastrowardoyo:
I would like to see the "launch passes"...
Here is an example, formerly from Jerry Ross' collection: |
NavyPilot
Member Posts: 36
From:
Registered: Nov 2015
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posted 08-11-2019 12:58 PM
On GTA-11, the crew were presented a giant shoehorn in the White Room. My guess is that this was a reference to Dick Gordon's size compared to the Gemini cockpit. Anyone? quote:
Originally posted by YankeeClipper:
Can anyone decipher the meaning of Tom BLFSPKT...
On GTA-9, the reference on the poster is difficult to trace because the character's name is misspelled! Not being a Li'l Abner reader, that wasn't clear until some net surfing many years ago.The name used on the poster is BLFSPKT.
Al Capp's character was named BTFSPLK. I don't know if the name was purposely altered to an inscrutible acronym that perhaps only Stafford would recognize as funny (next to a steaming heap, mind you) and maybe based on knowledge of what the character's name references, or if it was just an innocent spelling error perhaps based on a faulty memory. Has Stafford ever discussed this poster in public? |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-17-2019 12:08 PM
Gemini 7 launch day photo 65-H-1895 shows Jim Lovell in the White Room holding what appears to be a bottle of wine and a model aircraft. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-17-2019 07:45 PM
The caption I saw said Lovell, but I think that is actually Frank Borman. Lovell wore a watch on his right arm. The caption did not explain the gag. |
David C
Member Posts: 1039
From: Lausanne
Registered: Apr 2012
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posted 08-18-2019 07:12 AM
quote:
Originally posted by LM-12:
65-H-1895 shows Jim Lovell in the White Room holding what appears to be a bottle of wine and a model aircraft.
That model is of a Consolidated PBY flying boat or amphibian, which may be relevant.I'm thinking the bottle may be some kind of hard liquor rather than wine. Perhaps a white rum, pure speculation. Some kind of Navy v Air Force long voyage or after splashdown gag? Don't think Frank was a great sailor, and that was probably known. |
David Carey
Member Posts: 802
From:
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted 08-18-2019 11:37 AM
quote:
Originally posted by LM-12:
Can't make out what the cartoon says on Aldrin's helmet.
I'm going with it being a depiction of Alfred E. Neuman of Mad Magazine fame. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-18-2019 12:09 PM
You could be right, David because it looks like it might say "What? Me Worry??" below the sketch in the two Aldrin photos. |
David Carey
Member Posts: 802
From:
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted 08-18-2019 02:09 PM
I was pretty sure of seeing the same writing but figured that's what my brain bias would do after getting stuck on the visual image of Alfred. Good that you see it too and I agree. Brings back memories of reading my older brother's Mad magazine hand-me-downs! |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 08-18-2019 02:13 PM
They weren't hand-me-downs for me! |
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