The Personal Preference Kit (PPK) is a container used to carry the personal items of astronauts during the Gemini, Apollo, Space Shuttle, and International Space Station programs. Items that astronauts choose to carry into space are approved by NASA management and stored in PPKs. Information on the contents of kits are usually kept private by the astronaut, although some contents have been put on display or given as awards to contributors to space programs.
Federal Aviation Regulations as of 2021 define the purpose of Personal Preference Kits as allowing "persons on particular mission to carry personal items for use as mementos"; [1] mementos are defined as "flags, patches, insignia, medallions, minor graphics, and similar items of little commercial value". [2] Astronauts were required to submit a manifest listing the items to be held in their PPKs [3] as well as the ultimate recipients of the items, sixty days prior to their launch date. [4]
Information on the items taken by astronauts is usually kept private. [5] Some personal items have been put on display or given as awards to shuttle workers and VIPs. [6]
Project Gemini astronauts were authorized to take personal items on missions in a 6 in × 7 in (15 cm × 18 cm) nylon drawstring bag. Astronaut Wally Schirra disclosed the contents of the kit he took on the Gemini 6A mission, which contained his Navy wings, hunting license, and many medals, flags, and patches. [5]
Continuing the usage of PPKs in the Gemini program, crew on Apollo spaceflights were also assigned PPKs in which they could store personal items and souvenirs. [7] The PPKs were made from Beta cloth, a type of fireproof cloth added to Apollo/Skylab A7L space suits and used in other specialized applications. [8] [9] A sphere of aluminum taken by Frank Borman during Apollo 8 was later used to strike 200,000 space-flown medallions distributed to people who contributed to the Apollo program. [5]
In a special arrangement with the United States Air Force Museum, Neil Armstrong brought wood from the propeller and fabric from the wing of the 1903 Wright Flyer , the first plane to achieve powered flight, in his PPK taken to the Moon on Apollo 11. [6] [10] [11] On the same mission, Michael Collins brought the flag of the United States, the flag of Washington, D.C., and the flag of the Air Force, along with other items in his kit. [5]
During Apollo 12, astronauts were given four aluminum copies of the mission plaque that was left on the Moon. When the copies were returned to Earth, one copy was given to NASA engineer Jack Kinzler, who created the copies, while the remaining copies were given to crew members Pete Conrad, Richard F. Gordon Jr., and Alan Bean. [5]
As part of a joint project with the United States Forest Service, about 400 to 500 seeds of Douglas fir, loblolly pine, redwood, American sycamore, and sweetgum trees were stored in small containers in Stuart Roosa's PPK during the Apollo 14 mission. Upon his return to Earth, many of the seeds were germinated. Their seedlings were planted throughout the United States, Japan, Brazil, and Switzerland and grew to be the "Moon trees". [12] [13]
During the era of the Space Shuttle program, astronauts were limited to bringing a maximum of 20 personal items that weighed a total of 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg) and fit into a 5 in × 8 in × 2 in (12.7 cm × 20.3 cm × 5.1 cm) bag. [5] Astronauts were also given an Official Flight Kit (OFK) to carry items on the request of professional organizations or foreign governments. [5] [14] OFKs have carried larger items such as patches, flags of various countries, and awards that are later presented by an organization to its honorees. [14]
Items taken on space shuttle flights by astronaut Rhea Seddon, who flew on three Space Shuttle missions, include a pennant from her university, a sorority pin, a baseball cap for a sports team, and a roll of calculator tape marked with the signatures of students from her hometown. [5] In the fatal STS-107 mission, Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon brought on board Columbia a copy of the pencil drawing Moon Landscape by Petr Ginz, a boy murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust. [15] [16]
Within the International Space Station program, missions utilizing Soyuz and SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft both allow 3.3 pounds (1.5 kg) for personal items. [5] Astronauts have frequently taken musical instruments and cameras to the ISS. [5] [17]
Apollo 11 was the American spaceflight that first landed humans on the Moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, and Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon's surface six hours and 39 minutes later, on July 21 at 02:56 UTC. Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later, and they spent about two and a quarter hours together exploring the site they had named Tranquility Base upon landing. Armstrong and Aldrin collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material to bring back to Earth as pilot Michael Collins flew the Command Module Columbia in lunar orbit, and were on the Moon's surface for 21 hours, 36 minutes before lifting off to rejoin Columbia.
Apollo 13 was the seventh crewed mission in the Apollo space program and the third meant to land on the Moon. The craft was launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 1970, but the lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank in the service module (SM) ruptured two days into the mission, disabling its electrical and life-support system. The crew, supported by backup systems on the lunar module (LM), instead looped around the Moon in a circumlunar trajectory and returned safely to Earth on April 17. The mission was commanded by Jim Lovell, with Jack Swigert as command module (CM) pilot and Fred Haise as lunar module (LM) pilot. Swigert was a late replacement for Ken Mattingly, who was grounded after exposure to rubella.
Apollo 7 was the first crewed flight in NASA's Apollo program, and saw the resumption of human spaceflight by the agency after the fire that had killed the three Apollo 1 astronauts during a launch rehearsal test on January 27, 1967. The Apollo 7 crew was commanded by Walter M. Schirra, with command module pilot Donn F. Eisele and lunar module pilot R. Walter Cunningham.
Apollo 9 was the third human spaceflight in NASA's Apollo program. Flown in low Earth orbit, it was the second crewed Apollo mission that the United States launched via a Saturn V rocket, and was the first flight of the full Apollo spacecraft: the command and service module (CSM) with the Lunar Module (LM). The mission was flown to qualify the LM for lunar orbit operations in preparation for the first Moon landing by demonstrating its descent and ascent propulsion systems, showing that its crew could fly it independently, then rendezvous and dock with the CSM again, as would be required for the first crewed lunar landing. Other objectives of the flight included firing the LM descent engine to propel the spacecraft stack as a backup mode, and use of the portable life support system backpack outside the LM cabin.
Apollo 10 was the fourth human spaceflight in the United States' Apollo program and the second to orbit the Moon. NASA, the mission's operator, described it as a "dress rehearsal" for the first Moon landing. It was designated an "F" mission, intended to test all spacecraft components and procedures short of actual descent and landing.
Apollo 12 was the sixth crewed flight in the United States Apollo program and the second to land on the Moon. It was launched on November 14, 1969, by NASA from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Commander Charles "Pete" Conrad and Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean performed just over one day and seven hours of lunar surface activity while Command Module Pilot Richard F. Gordon remained in lunar orbit.
Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut and aeronautical engineer who in 1969 became the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also a naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor.
Buzz Aldrin is an American former astronaut, engineer and fighter pilot. He made three spacewalks as pilot of the 1966 Gemini 12 mission, and was the Lunar Module Eagle pilot on the 1969 Apollo 11 mission. He was the second person to walk on the Moon after mission commander Neil Armstrong. Following the death of Michael Collins in 2021, he is the last surviving Apollo 11 crew member.
Eugene Andrew Cernan was an American astronaut, naval aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and fighter pilot. During the Apollo 17 mission, Cernan became the 11th human being to walk on the Moon. As he re-entered the Apollo Lunar Module after Harrison Schmitt on their third and final lunar excursion, he remains the most recent person to walk on the Moon.
David Randolph Scott is an American retired test pilot and NASA astronaut who was the seventh person to walk on the Moon. Selected as part of the third group of astronauts in 1963, Scott flew to space three times and commanded Apollo 15, the fourth lunar landing; he is one of four surviving Moon walkers and the only living commander of a spacecraft that landed on the Moon.
Project Gemini was the second United States human spaceflight program to fly. Conducted after the first American crewed space program, Project Mercury, while the Apollo program was still in early development, Gemini was conceived in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual astronauts flew low Earth orbit (LEO) missions during 1965 and 1966.
NASA Astronaut Group 2, also known as the Next Nine and the New Nine, was the second group of astronauts selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Their selection was announced on September 17, 1962. The group augmented the Mercury Seven. President John F. Kennedy had announced Project Apollo, on May 25, 1961, with the ambitious goal of putting a man on the Moon by the end of the decade, and more astronauts were required to fly the two-man Gemini spacecraft and three-man Apollo spacecraft then under development. The Mercury Seven had been selected to accomplish the simpler task of orbital flight, but the new challenges of space rendezvous and lunar landing led to the selection of candidates with advanced engineering degrees as well as test pilot experience.
The Armstrong Air & Space Museum is a museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio, the hometown of aviator and astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon. Opened in 1972, the museum chronicles Ohio's contributions to the history of aeronautics and space flight. The museum is home to the original Gemini 8 spacecraft piloted by Armstrong to perform the world's first space docking, two of Armstrong's space suits, multiple items from the Apollo Program missions, a Moon rock brought back during the Apollo 11 mission, and an F5D Skylancer. The museum has several main galleries that cover spaceflight history from the early beginnings of the Space Race to the end of the Space Shuttle era. In the museum's Astro-theater, multimedia presentations and documentaries are cast upon the interior of the dome.
The Apollo 15 postal covers incident, a 1972 NASA scandal, involved the astronauts of Apollo 15, who carried about 400 unauthorized postal covers into space and to the Moon's surface on the Lunar Module Falcon. Some of the envelopes were sold at high prices by West German stamp dealer Hermann Sieger, and are known as "Sieger covers". The crew of Apollo 15—David Scott, Alfred Worden, and James Irwin—agreed to take payments for carrying the covers; though they returned the money, they were reprimanded by NASA. Amid much press coverage of the incident, the astronauts were called before a closed session of a Senate committee and never flew in space again.
Glynn Stephen Lunney was an American NASA engineer. An employee of NASA since its creation in 1958, Lunney was a flight director during the Gemini and Apollo programs, and was on duty during historic events such as the Apollo 11 lunar ascent and the pivotal hours of the Apollo 13 crisis. At the end of the Apollo program, he became manager of the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, the first collaboration in spaceflight between the United States and the Soviet Union. Later, he served as manager of the Space Shuttle program before leaving NASA in 1985 and later becoming a vice president of the United Space Alliance.
The United States Astronaut Hall of Fame, located inside the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Heroes & Legends building on Merritt Island, Florida, honors American astronauts and features the world's largest collection of their personal memorabilia, focusing on those astronauts who have been inducted into the Hall. Exhibits include Wally Schirra's Sigma 7 space capsule from the fifth crewed Mercury mission and the Gemini IX spacecraft flown by Gene Cernan and Thomas P. Stafford in 1966.
The American Space Museum is a museum in Titusville, Florida. It includes the US Space Walk of Fame, an outdoor plaza on the Indian River that honors both the astronauts and the NASA and contractor personnel who made American crewed space exploration possible. The monuments surround a pool and are dedicated to the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Space Shuttle programs. The museum houses related exhibits and artifacts and is located at 308 Pine Street.
NASA space-flown Gemini and Apollo medallions were mission-specific commemorative medallions, often astronaut-designed, which were approved by NASA and carried aboard the mission spacecraft into orbit. Beginning with the first crewed Gemini mission in 1965, commemorative medallions were prepared for the astronauts at their request. These were produced by a company only known as Fliteline and were struck either in a pewter-colored base metal, sometimes painted a gold color, or sterling silver, and were flown on all 10 crewed Gemini missions. A Fliteline medallion was designed and produced for Apollo 1, but was never officially flown after a disastrous cabin fire during a launch rehearsal killed the flight crew.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration .