Echoes-From-Apollo

Manned Space Program Replica 'Toys'

 

I have been lugging these 'toys' around with me during three different moves since about 1999. I have two of each. I did a google search on these items but could not really find these items on the web which leads me to believe they may be rare pieces as far as 'toys' go. They are all mint, pristine, still in original boxes/blister packs. I still have the receipt for two of the sets. I bought the 'Apollo 11 First Lunar Landing' sets and the 'Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Shuttle Astronaut' figures sets from a 'Johnson Smith Company' which may not even be in business anymore. I may have bought the 'Space Voyagers Lunar Rover Vehicle' sets from the same company at the same time but don't have the receipt for them. They are very cool detailed plastic replicas!! Take a look below.

 APOLLO 11
FIRST LUNAR LANDING REPLICAS
 

 

  

 

 

  

 

MERCURY, GEMINI, APOLLO, SHUTTLE
ASTRONAUT FIGURES
  

 

 SPACE VOYAGERS
LUNAR ROVER VEHICLES REPLICAS
 

 

NASA Flight Controller John Cooper Archive: Vintage Apollo 16 Flight Plan Change A Vintage Apollo 16 LM Cue Card Change A Vintage Apollo 16 LM Lunar Surface Checklist Revision A

 

Here are three awesome vintage Apollo 16 flight controller used items I recently obtained from the family of NASA Flight Controller John Cooper. According to the family, Coopers' sister 'has decided to part with several boxes of material that belonged to her brother, John H. Cooper, a NASA engineer and geology-specialist flight controller at the Manned Spacecraft Center (later re-named Johnson Space Center) during the Apollo Program. According to [the] family, he was also involved in the development of the Lunar Rover. He died in early 1973, near the summit of Mt. Aconcagua (Argentina), shortly after participating in Apollo 17, the last manned moon mission. Below is a screenshot of him from the NASA documentary, "On the Shoulders of Giants," which includes footage of him taken during Apollo 17.'

There are some very interesting notations made by Cooper on the below pages which have been excerpted from these documents! 
 

  JOHN COOPER
NASA FLIGHT CONTROLLER

 

 

APOLLO 16 FLIGHT PLAN CHANGE A 
COVER

 

 

PAGE 3-1
COOPER IS 'ON CONSOLE'
'LIFT OFF ONTIME'
'GO FOR ORBIT'

 

 

 PAGE 3-2
'SIVB APS LEAKING BUT NOT SUFFICIENTLY TP PREVENT TLI AND TD E.'
 'MIGHT HAVE AN IMPACT ON THE SIVB LUNAR IMPACT OBJECTIVE' 

 

 

 PAGE 3-5
'GO' FOR TLI
TLI 'ON TIME'
'SECO ON TIME'
'GO' FOR TRANSPOSITION AND DOCKING

 

 

 PAGE 3-6
'HARD DOCK'
'GO FOR LM EJECTION'

 

 

 PAGE 3-9
'KRANZ ON FD'
 'NORTH AMERICA CLEAR OF CLOUDS FROM LAKE MICHIGAN TO SOUTH OF YUCATAN MEX.'

 

 

  PAGE 3-11
'POTENTIAL PROBLEM DEVELOPED: DUKE OBSERVED FLAKING OF MATERIAL FROM THERMAL BLANKET IN AREA OF LM RCS "A" AREA.  COVERS HE AND O2 TANKS. MAY BE TANK LEAKAGE OR JUST PAINT PEELING OFF THE AL THERMAL COVERING.'

  

 

  PAGE 3-12

'GRIFF SICK. DOUBLE SHIFT'
(GERRY GRIFFIN?)

 

 

 

 PAGE 3-13
'POWERED UP LM TO LOOK AT RCS QUAD A PROP TANK QUALITIES AND PRESSURES'
'ALL DATA LOOKED GOOD'
'TV OF AREA UNDER DISCUSSION DIDN'T SHOW ANY SOURCE FOR THE PROBLEM BUT COULD SEE THE FLAKING VERY WELL'

 

 

 PAGE 3-20
'P37 PADS' CALCULATIONS
'G. GRIFFIN ON'

 

 

 PAGE 3-61
'MOON 
V=3668.1
h=18063.9 NM'

 

 

  PAGE 3-74
'PREDICTED SIVB IMPACT 1 50' N 23 18' W'
'IMPACTED AT  21:02:02 ... FROM APOLLO 12 ALSEP...'

 

 

PAGE 3-84
'IN LUNAR ORBIT' 

  

 

 

 PAGE 3-112
INTERESTING HANDWRITTEN BLOCK GRAPH  

 
 

 

 PAGE 3-349
'NOMINAL BURN'
ASSOCIATED FIGURES 

 

 

 PAGE 3-352
EVA OPERATIONS
CHECKMARKS
'HATCH OPEN' 

 

 

 

 PAGE 3-353
CMP AND LMP DOFF BIOMED HARNESS
'HEART RATE GOT AS HIGH AS 170'
(DUKE?)

 

 

 PAGE 3-354
'LMP STARTING IN HATCH'
'REPRESS FROM EVA' 

 

 

 PAGE 3-394
'290:08:38'
'RECOVERY FORCES ON STATION'
':32 FROM LDG-ALL ASTRO'S ON BOARD HELO'

 

 

 PAGE 5-16
'191:00 = 213:00 OF ORIGINAL FLT PLN.'
'CONTINUE EQUIPMENT TRANSFER FROM LM' 

  

 

 PAGE 5-19
217:00
LM JETT
CSM SEP
'COULD NOT GET  LM THRUSTERS TO FIRE DUE FAULTY CS CONFIGURATION IN LM DURING LM CLOSEOUT' 

 

 

  PAGE 5-20
236:00
'CREW STILL SLEEPING'

 

 

 PAGE 5-23
272:00
SKYLAB CONTAMINATION PHOTOS
'SKYLAB CONTAM'
NUMEROUS CALCULATIONS 

 

 

 

 APOLLO 16 LM CUE CARD CHANGE A  
 

COVER

 

 

  LIST OF EFFECTIVE PAGES  DESCRIBING NUMEROUS LM CUE CARDS

 

 

  

 

 'LM CUE CARD LOCATIONS'
CONFIGURATION 

 

 

 APOLLO 16 LM LUNAR SURFACE CHECKLIST
REVISION A  

 COVER

 

 

LIST OF EFFECTIVE PAGES, WITH NOTATIONS  

 

 

 

 

  CONTENTS, WITH NOTATIONS

 

 

 NOTATION INDICATING CORRESPONDS
TO 'FLT PLAN 3-110'

 

 

 

NOTATION INDICATING CORRESPONDS
TO 'FLT PLAN 3-112' 

 

 

 NOTATION INDICATING CORRESPONDS
TO 'FLT PLAN P 3-112'

INTERESTING HANDWRITTEN GRAPH NOTATIONS 

 

 

  NOTATION INDICATING CORRESPONDS
TO 'FLT PLAN 3-112'

  

 

 

Flown 'Apollo IX LM-3 Final Flight Crew G&N Dictionary' Dated February 24, 1969

 

Here is my 'flown', complete, 'Apollo IX LM-3 Final Flight Crew G&N Dictionary',  Part Number 'SKB32100016-301', Serial Number '1001', date February 24, 1969. This was Apollo 9 Commander James McDivitts' personal copy and flew in space with him throughout the Apollo 9 Mission. He took this into the Lunar Module and used it during the first ever flight of the LM in a space environment.

Apollo 9, was the third manned mission in the United States Apollo space program and the first flight of the Command/Service Module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM). Its' three-person crew, consisting of Commander James McDivitt, Command Module Pilot David Scott, and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart, tested several aspects critical to landing on the Moon, including the LM engines, backpack life support systems, navigation systems, and docking maneuvers. The mission was the second manned launch of a Saturn V rocket.

After launching on March 3, 1969, McDivitt, Scott, and Schweickart spent ten days in low Earth orbit. They performed the first manned flight of a LM, the first docking and extraction of a LM, two spacewalks, and the second docking of two manned spacecraft.

McDivitt and Schweickart later test-flew the LM, and practiced separation and docking maneuvers between the LM and CSM in Earth orbit. They flew the LM up to 111 miles (179 km) from the CSM, testing the engine on the descent stage, subsequently jettisoning the LM descent stage, and used the LM ascent stage to return to, and dock with, the CSM. This LM test flight represented the first flight of a manned spacecraft that was not equipped to reenter the Earth's atmosphere...

AND THIS PIECE OF SPACE HISTORY WAS WITNESS TO IT ALL!!!

'APOLLO IX LM-3 FINAL FLIGHT CREW G&N DICTIONARY'
FRONT COVERS

 

 

 

 

On 3/24/2012 my wife and I met with Apollo 9 Commander McDivitt in Tucson AZ. During this meeting McDivitt was shown this Apollo 9 LM G&N Dictionary and personally confirmed that this item flew with him on the Apollo 9 Mission. While looking through the Dictionary, McDivitt showed us page 'PGNS 1/Star List', and advised that as a tribute to Apollo 1 Astronauts Virgil I. 'Gus' Grissom, Roger Chaffee, and Ed White II, the Apollo 9 crew named three stars listed on this page after these three Apollo 1 astronauts, all of whom perished in a fire on the launch pad in January 1967. McDivitt showed us that Star Number 3, listed as 'Navi' in the Dictionary, was actually 'Ivan' spelled backward in honor of Grissom whose middle name was 'Ivan'. He advised that Star Number 17, listed as 'Regor' in the Dictionary, was actually 'Roger' spelled backward in honor of Roger Chaffee. He advised that Star Number 20, listed as 'Dnoces' in the Dictionary, was actually 'Second' spelled backward in honor of Edward H. White II (the Second).

 

MYSELF, MCDIVITT, AND THE DICTIONARY 

I am holding the Dictionary.
McDivitt is holding my other Apollo 9 flown item,
a 'Docking and Post Docking Leading to LM Jettison' 
cue card/checklist which was also flown in space with
McDivitt on Apollo 9. 

 

 

PGNS-1
STAR LIST
 

  OTHER INTERESTING PAGES WITH
WHAT APPEAR TO BE HANDWRITTEN NOTATIONS

PGNS-33

 

PGNS-34

 
PGNS-41

PGNS-43

 

Since obtaining this item in 2011, I had been searching for either an original, or copy of, the Apollo 9 'Stowage List' documenting that this item was listed as part of  the Apollo 9 Mission. Initially I reached out to other collectors and in 2013 was sent an email by another collector whom I believe had a vintage Apollo 9 'Stowage List' that this item was indeed included in this 'Stowage List'. However, for some reason, this collector was reluctant to send me a complete copy of the actual 'Stowage List' itself. So I continued my search.

In 2018 I came across the following entry in the National Archives website: 'Composite Apollo Stowage Lists 1967-1975 National Archives Identifier: 656392 Local Identifier: NRF-255-214 Record Group 255 (Apollo 9) Contacts National Archives at Fort Worth (RM-FW)'. Soooo, for a small fee, I was able to obtain a complete copy of the 'Stowage List'  through the National Archives.

 

NATIONAL ARCHIVES
APOLLO 9 'STOWAGE LIST'
COVER

NATIONAL ARCHIVES
APOLLO 9 'STOWAGE LIST'
PAGE 35
LAST ENTRY SHOWING THE 'LM G&N DICTIONARY'

 

  
APOLLO 9 LAUNCH

 

 
   LM-3 IN EARTH ORBIT

 APOLLO 9 SPLASHDOWN