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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Skyman, post: 2295889, member: 28299&quot;]Fifty years ago today, December 15, 1965, Gemini 6 rendezvoused with Gemini 7.&nbsp; It was the first time ever that humans had performed a rendezvous in space.&nbsp; This was perhaps the moment that the US overtook the USSR in the &quot;Space Race&quot;.&nbsp; Certainly in conjunction with Gemini 7&#039;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, &quot;... not the beginning of the end, but rather the end of the beginning&quot;.&nbsp; From here on out the US, for the most part, ruled the Space Race.</p><p><br /></p><p>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.&nbsp; Without rendezvous, none of that would have been feasible.</p><p><br /></p><p>Astronauts were allowed to bring (subject to weight limits) personal items aboard a flight.&nbsp; These items were stashed in their PPK (personal preference kits).&nbsp; Before each flight the head of the astronaut office Deke Slayton had to sign off on the contents of each PPK.&nbsp; Here is the PPK list that Wally Schirra, the Commander of Gemini 6, submitted to Slayton.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; I have been looking around for some time to find out if ANYONE knows anything about the &quot;1950-D&quot; coin (see # 3).&nbsp; Needless to say, I&#039;d love to buy it if it comes onto the market with an authentic provenance trail.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/Gemini_1-7/GT6PPKlist.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Anyhow, here are pix of mission flown patches I have from both missions, as well as some pictures (some signed) taken during the missions.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/Gemini_1-7/GT6PatchSmCr.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/Gemini_1-7/lf.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/Gemini_1-7/GT6Liftoff_zps8a604689.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/Gemini_1-7/GT7Liftoff_zpsedd5a988.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i106.photobucket.com/albums/m246/SkyMan58/SpaceRelated/Gemini_1-7/gemini7.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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