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Flown constellation chart and Greek alphabet cue card that were carried into geocentric orbit during the historic Gemini 9 mission, both of which are signed and flight-certified in black ink by the mission pilot, “Flown on Gemini IX, Gene Cernan.” The chart, entitled “SC1 Constellation Chart,” 24 x 9.5, features a variety of red and black felt tip notations, with Cernan identifying the “Sun” and “Full Moon,” several planets like “Jupiter,” “Mercury,” “Mars,” “Venus,” and “Saturn,” and TPI (Terminal Phase Initiation) at 3:27:00. In the upper border, Cernan refers to the planned rendezvous with the Augmented Target Docking Adaptor: “GEM-ATDA Roll Axis (0-0-0) Track For 3 June 1966 Lift-Off at 13:39:36 or 15:15:10 GMT.”
The Greek alphabet legend, 2.25 x 4.5, is affixed to a slightly larger cardstock sheet. The Gemini 9 constellation chart showed key navigation stars labeled with their Greek letter designations (like α Lyrae, β Orionis). Since astronauts weren’t trained astronomers, they carried a Greek letter legend as a translation tool to quickly decode those symbols into star names and locations. They would use the legend to match ‘α’ to the brightest star in a constellation, ‘β’ to the next, and so on, letting them correctly identify stars through the spacecraft’s sextant/telescope for celestial navigation practice. In overall fine condition, with two small puncture holes to the right side of the chart, and a rusty paper clip impression to the cue card.
A highly appealing tandem of celestial navigation tools from a 3-day mission proved to be one of the most challenging of all the Gemini flights. The mission’s two main goals—testing EVA procedures and rendezvousing and docking with an Agena target vehicle—both proved problematic, with Cernan encountering several issues with his EVA and his rigid space suit, and the ATDA target vehicle malfunctioning—docking with the ATDA proved impossible when the payload fairing failed to separate, resulting in what is known as the ‘angry alligator.’ Although the docking failed and the EVA went poorly, the Gemini 9 mission exposed crucial problems that NASA needed to fix before proceeding with the Apollo missions.
