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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Skyman, post: 1124968, member: 28299&quot;]For those of you that don&#039;t know me, I&#039;ve got a Ph.D. specializing in interpreting satellite imagery, and I&#039;m a space memorabilia junkie for items from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo era (~ 1959 - 1972).</p><p><br /></p><p>The prime backer behind the Astrodome in Houston was a Big space fan.&nbsp; During the 1960&#039;s, he got the Gemini astronauts, and one other group, to sign dollar bills for his collection.&nbsp; These bills were NOT flown.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Each Gemini crew (Geminis 3 - 12) signed one of these bills.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Here are the 10 Gemini bills and some flight highlights:</p><p><br /></p><p>GT3.&nbsp; (The G stands for Gemini, the T stands for Titan, which was the launch rocket).&nbsp; &quot;Gus&quot; Grissom, John Young.&nbsp; First manned Gemini flight.&nbsp; First human flight to change orbit.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/GT3ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>GT4.&nbsp; James McDivitt, Ed White.&nbsp; First US walk in space.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/GT4ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>GT5.&nbsp; &quot;Gordo&quot; Cooper, &quot;Pete&quot; Conrad.&nbsp; Longest mission (at that point in time) ever, 8 days.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/GT5ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>GT6.&nbsp; Wally Schirra, Tom Stafford.&nbsp; First rendezvous in space.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/GT6ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>GT7.&nbsp; Frank Borman, Jim Lovell.&nbsp; Longest mission (at that point in time) ever, 14 days.&nbsp; First rendezvous in space.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/GT7ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>GT8.&nbsp; Neil Armstrong, Dave Scott.&nbsp; First docking in space.&nbsp; Mission almost ended in disaster when one of the thrusters stuck in the &quot;on&quot; position.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/GT8ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>GT9.&nbsp; Tom Stafford, Gene Cernan.&nbsp; First attempt by humans to do serious work while &quot;walking&quot; in space.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/GT9ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>GT10.&nbsp; John Young, Michael Collins.&nbsp; First use of another (docked) rocket (on the docked Agena booster) to propel a spacecraft in space.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/GT10ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>GT11.&nbsp; &quot;Pete&quot; Conrad, Dick Gordon.&nbsp; First creation of artificial gravity in space.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/GT11ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>GT12.&nbsp; Jim Lovell, &quot;Buzz&quot; Aldrin.&nbsp; First truly successful performance of space &quot;walking&quot; tasks.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/GT12ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>The next bill has been signed by ALL 7 Mercury astronauts and the comedian Bill Dana the &quot;unofficial&quot; 8th Mercury astronaut.&nbsp; Dana created a skit called &quot;Jose Jimenez&quot; the &quot;reluctant astronaut&quot; that the other astronauts really liked.&nbsp; While there are almost certainly other bills with the Mercury 7 astronaut signatures out there (although not many I suspect), I highly doubt there are many, if any, others that have Bill Dana on it too.&nbsp; Still, just to get all 7 Mercury astronaut signatures in one place is very desirable, and is worth far more to space memorabilia collectors than just the 7 signatures taken by themselves.</p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;Mercury 7.&nbsp; Scott Carpenter, Wally Schirra, &quot;Deke&quot; Slayton, &quot;Gordo&quot; Cooper, John Glenn, Alan Shepard, &quot;Gus&quot; Grissom.&nbsp; Bill Dana.</p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/Merc7ss.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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