Posts: 67
From: Warwick, RI USA
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 07-25-2007 10:19 AM            

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Does anyone have any information on the six Mercury flight manifests? I am curious as to what the astronauts carried with them on their flights.

For example, I know that on Gus Grissom's Liberty Bell 7, he carried 7 Mercury Head Nickels among other items, which were discovered when the capsule was raised in 1999.

Posts: 52768
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 07-25-2007 10:33 AM               

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I am not aware that any such manifest exists for Mercury.

In regards to the Liberty Bell 7 dimes to which you write, they were on-board without the knowledge of Grissom. Though he carried his own dimes, the dimes found upon raising the capsule (52 of them) were part of a roll of the coins stowed by the engineers behind a panel.

Similarly, silver notes were flown on some of the other missions, without involving the astronaut pilot (until after the flight, when the astronaut was asked to sign the note or the certificate on which it was placed).

Russ Still's "Relics of the Space Race" has a good chapter about the quantity and type of currency flown on the Mercury and Gemini flights.

Posts: 67
From: Warwick, RI USA
Registered: Jan 2006

posted 07-25-2007 01:20 PM            

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Thanks for the info.

Yes, they were dimes not nickels. Did not know there were that many of them. I will check out the Relics book.

Posts: 1390
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007

posted 07-25-2007 03:28 PM               

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Gus Grissom carried in the left leg of his suit: two rolls of fifty dimes each, three one-dollar bills, some small models of the capsule and two sets of pilot's wings ("We Seven" pp 296-7).

Shepard wore his Annapolis ring.

A few of the technicians had placed one dollar bills behind Glenn's couch in Friendship 7.

Scott Carpenter had his Breitling Navitimer on his lift wrist (24-hour version).

Wally Schirra and Gordo Cooper both wore an Omega Speedmaster. Cooper also carried his father's leather belt.

Posts: 52768
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 07-26-2007 10:08 AM               

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There were also a couple of gag items placed on-board by their fellow astronauts.

Shepard hid a small felt mouse inside Glenn's Friendship 7. Cooper snuck a pack of Tareyton cigarettes aboard Schirra's Sigma 7.

Posts: 268
From: United Kingdom
Registered: Oct 2006

Posts: 1390
From: Staten Island, NY
Registered: Jun 2007

posted 08-24-2007 08:38 PM               

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I read somewhere (I think it was an old National Geographic) that tucked somewhere inside Freedom 7 was the Bible that President Eisenhower was sworn in on.

Glenn still wears his wedding ring. I think Schirra also carried his Annapolis ring.

Carpenter still wears his Breitling Navitimer (he showed it to me). Cooper had a Bulova Accutron on his right wrist (in addition to the Omega). He said it kept perfect time.

The Tareyton cigarettes that were in Sigma 7 were sold a short time ago (Wally drank the whiskey).

Posts: 67
From: Warwick, RI USA
Registered: Jan 2006

Posts: 6266
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001

posted 07-21-2024 07:54 AM               

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The 1961 Mercury-Redstone being short suborbital flights, Alan Shepard nor Gus Grissom wore a wristwatch but I always wondered if Shepard carried any personal souvenirs?

Remember Grissom took 100 dimes and a few one dollars bills together with a set of miniature capsule models.

Or did the other astronauts carry anything personal during Mercury-Atlas flights, besides the time pieces they wore?

[John Glenn, Heuer stopwatch; Scott Carpenter, Breitling Navitimer; Wally Schirra, Omega Speedmaster CK2998; Gordon Cooper, Accutron Astronaut pilot watch and Omega Speedmaster CK2998]

Editor's note: Threads merged.

Posts: 56
From: Akron, OH
Registered: Feb 2021

posted 07-21-2024 11:03 AM               

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Shepard carried a 23x36" American flag and his naval academy ring on MR-3. The flown flag is now on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Heroes and Legends exhibit. The academy ring is in the possession of his daughter Laura Shepard Churchly, who flew it on another suborbital flight as a crewmember of Blue Origin NS-19 in 2021. Assuming it is all the same academy ring, an article from Robert at the time shared a quote from Churchly stating that Shepard also flew the ring on Apollo 14.

Without flight manifests, it is difficult to know a complete list of what mementos were flown on Mercury missions. Everything from currency to cigarettes to peacock feathers have made their way into museums and private hands.

One area of notable Mercury memorabilia is the flown charms for each mission. Recognizing that Shepard did not carry many mementos on MR-3, Dr. Bill Douglass urged Grissom to carry mementos on his MR-4 mission. One hundred (100) 1961 Roosevelt dimes flew in his spacesuit pocket along with other souvenirs. Gus and Betty Grissom later had bezels and silver "Liberty Bell 7" charms added on. I'll take the opportunity to promote an excellent article from our own Larry McGlynn.

All four orbital Mercury missions carried charms. Cece Bibby worked with Glenn, Carpenter, and Schirra to have gold charms made with their spacecraft's logo artwork. Twelve charms flew on each of their respective missions. Bibby recalls that Glenn distributed his to his wife, children, secretary, and Dee O'Hara.

Bibby wore a bracelet with these charms that was donated to the Smithsonian in 2002. From a different bracelet worn by Jo Schirra and later auctioned, it appears that a charm in the same style was done for Cooper's mission, but was not worn by Bibby presumably since that capsule artwork was done by McDonnell Draftsman B.R. Schuster.

Additional charms were flown as well. Glenn carried "Mercury Orbital" pins on the mission designed by B.A. Ballou & Company that included "Friendship 7" and the initials of the receiver. Carpenter flew Aurora 7 charms differing from Bibby's design that were larger and outlined by the Project Mercury symbol. Shepard, later realizing that his mission was devoid of flown charms, had a section of Freedom 7's heatshield release mechanism turned into small rings attached to gold charms. Eleven of these charms were made for his children, the Mercury 7 wives, and Jean Gilruth.

I personally consider these charms to be the predecessors to the Fliteline and Robbins medallions. The best example I have seen is the Grissom family's bracelet at the Grissom Memorial Museum in Mitchell, Indiana which features a flown charm/medallion for each mission from MR-3 through Apollo 1.

Posts: 886
From: Marietta GA USA
Registered: Dec 1999