Fifty years ago today, December 15, 1965, Gemini 6 rendezvoused with Gemini 7. It was the first time ever that humans had performed a rendezvous in space. This was perhaps the moment that the US overtook the USSR in the "Space Race". Certainly in conjunction with Gemini 7's two week long space flight (basically to test human endurance in space), this marked, as Churchill would call cleaning the Axis out of North Africa, "... not the beginning of the end, but rather the end of the beginning". From here on out the US, for the most part, ruled the Space Race. All the major space accomplishments from that time forward have depended upon rendezvous, whether it be the Apollo space ships in lunar orbit, the US/USSR/Russian ships going to space stations, or astronauts tending the Hubble Space Telescope in orbit. Without rendezvous, none of that would have been feasible. Astronauts were allowed to bring (subject to weight limits) personal items aboard a flight. These items were stashed in their PPK (personal preference kits). Before each flight the head of the astronaut office Deke Slayton had to sign off on the contents of each PPK. Here is the PPK list that Wally Schirra, the Commander of Gemini 6, submitted to Slayton. To the best of my knowledge it is the only PPK list from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo (MGA) era that has survived, and I own it. I have been looking around for some time to find out if ANYONE knows anything about the "1950-D" coin (see # 3). Needless to say, I'd love to buy it if it comes onto the market with an authentic provenance trail. Anyhow, here are pix of mission flown patches I have from both missions, as well as some pictures (some signed) taken during the missions.
Thanks for the memory. I was 11 years old then and followed every space mission intently. There has been nothing like it since. Hate to see what has become of our space program. I can recall a NASA plan to have astronauts land on Mars by 2010. Won't happen in my lifetime.
