Two items related to the historic Mercury-Atlas 5 mission:
A Western Union Press Message sheet, 8 x 10.5, featuring ‘real time’ handwritten pencil notations made by veteran aerospace reporter Mary E. Bubb during a ‘live’ press coverage of NASA’s orbital MA-5 flight on November 29, 1961, with Enos, a chimpanzee, aboard. The craft orbited the Earth twice and splashed down about 200 miles south of Bermuda, and Enos became the first primate from the United States and the third great ape to orbit the Earth. Bubb’s notes read, in part: “Right on ball—factual reporting job—Arnold Aldrich—chief flight controller…only few seconds—decision made here—Difficulties would not have occurred if man aboard. Depend completely auto system…Impact SB. Enos good shape.” The first full-time woman space reporter, Bubb covered more than 3,000 missile and rocket firings from 1956 to 1988.
A 3.25″ x 1.75″ swatch of orange parachute fabric attested to being as flown as part of the MA-5 mission. The swatch is affixed to an 8.5 x 11 certificate of authenticity signed by space memorabilia specialist Ken Havekotte, which states: “The spacecraft’s 63-foot dia. main Ringsail parachute was retrieved by the Navy Atlantic spacecraft recovery forces and flown back to its Florida Cape launch site. It stayed inside Hangar S of the Cape’s industrial area for a post-flight inspection and cleaning process. Once completed, members of the Cape’s Mercury spacecraft processing and test team had permission to cut off sections of the original chute. The flown parachute segments were kept as souvenirs by some of the MA-5 orbital spaceflight team. The cut segment below is one of the flown chute’s Ringsail fabric that had been retained by the Lacy family from 1961 to 2016. Lacey, an original Project Mercury team member, worked for Radio Corp. of America (RCA) throughout the Mercury and Gemini era.” In overall fine condition. Accompanied by two vintage original glossy NASA photos related to the mission.
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