Sold For $1,059
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Handsome bronze medallion honoring the Mercury Seven astronauts, 3˝ in diameter, with the front featuring embossed portraits of each astronaut with raised surname text, “Carpenter,” “Cooper,” “Glenn,” “Grissom,” “Schirra,” “Shepard,” and “Slayton”; and the reverse features raised images of the Project Mercury symbol and a Mercury-Redstone Launch Vehicle, with text: “Commemorating Free Man’s First Adventure Beyond the Atmosphere, 1958-1963.” The edge is marked “Medallic Art Co. N.Y.” and “Bronze.” Set within an acrylic presentation display measuring 6˝ x 4˝ x 3.5˝. In fine condition.
Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from the son of the original recipient, Dr. Joseph John Combs, Jr., who served as a medical director on NASA’s Project Gemini being conducted at McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis, Missouri. “Dr. Combs was focused primarily on the biomedical recorders, and more specifically on ECG (cardiac) recordations to record heart rate during prolonged exposure to zero-G. As such, he interacted closely and daily with the Gemini astronauts, attaching and removing biomedical recording leads and interviewing them about perceived effects of induced space conditions…Dr. Combs became personal friends with many of the astronauts…I hereby certify and attest that the space memorabilia in the collection being auctioned are the real and actual articles gifted to my father, Dr. Combs, by the Gemini astronauts during the time my father served as a medical director at McDonnell Aircraft in the 1960s.”
