This collection consists of the following manuals, many of which are annotated by Captain Carl E. Pruett, MC USN: MR-3 post-flight debriefing of Alan B. Shepard, Jr.; Project Mercury Familiarization Manuals (3 manuals); Project Flight Controller Handbook; Operations Plan: Bioastronautic Support for Project Mercury; Project Mercury Familiarization Manual; Descriptive Synopsis of Project Mercury; Mercury Atlas MA-6 booklet; NASA Project Gemini Familiarization Manual Long Range and Modified Configurations; Procedures for Alerting and Moving DOD Medical People in Support of Project Gemini; The First Manned Space Flight, by Yu. M. Volynkin, V. I. Yazdovskiy and others; Project Mercury Capsule Flight Operations Manual; MA-6 Briefing Notebook; Introduction to Project Mercury and Site Handbook; Basic Orientation Course, Aeromedical Monitors - Project Mercury Notebook; Project Mercury Vol. 1, Chronology, Suborbital Flight 1, Suborbital Flight 2, First Manned Orbital Flight; Project Mercury Flight Controller Handbook; Results of the Second US Manned Orbital Space Flight May 24, 1962; Remote Site Flight Controller's Console Handbook; Samples of the Project Mercury Bioinstrumentation Records, April 4, 1963; "Trip Report on TAD, NASA Project Gemini Command Control and Communications Network;" NASA photos from an unidentified site visit and presentation, and "Go: Colonel Glenn in Orbit" 33 1/3 RPM Record.
Biographical / Historical:
Captain Carl E. Pruett, MC USN, (d.1991) specialized in aviation medical safety, serving 30 years as assistant for medical and allied sciences to the deputy chief of naval operations. Pruett received a medical degree from the University of Illinois in 1943. He graduated from the Naval School of Aviation Medicine and served in Washington, DC, from 1953 to 1955 as aviation medical safety specialist in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Air. Pruett assignments also included sea duty as a flight surgeon in the Pacific and as Chief of the Biomedical Division of the Air Force Aero Medical Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio. In 1958 Pruett was assigned to Point Mugu, California, where he helped establish the Pacific Missile Bioscience Office and Life Science Department of the Naval Missile Center (now the Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division). He became a medical monitor for Project Mercury in 1962, and in that capacity served as medical monitor for the earth-orbiting flight of John Glenn. He was later transferred to Washington, DC, where he served in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Naval Operations until his retirement.
Provenance:
Richard K Pruett (Rick), Gift, 2016
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
his collection consists of the following materials collected by Richard E. Martens: eighteen black and white prints, two color prints and three black and white negatives of blast-shield tests panels, eight black and white photographs of the scale model used to for altitude testing, and four black and white prints of full-scale Gemini separation test hardware.
Biographical / Historical:
Richard E. Martens joined McDonnell in 1962 where he worked for the Gemini propulsion group. There he developed an analytical model describing the "pop gun" phenomena of a Gemini Mode II abort and monitored the test program on the emergency separation procedure. He later conducted ablative material evaluation with the McDonnell's Rocket Engine Technology group.
Provenance:
his collection consists of the following materials collected by Richard E. Martens: eighteen black and white prints, two color prints and three black and white negatives of blast-shield tests panels, eight black and white photographs of the scale model used to for altitude testing, and four black and white prints of full-scale Gemini separation test hardware., Gift, 2004
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access.
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests
This collection consists of color slides taken by Don Blair during his coverage of astronaut crew splashdowns and recoveries, 1960s.
Scope and Contents:
This collection consists of 35 mm color slides taken by Don Blair during his coverage of astronaut crew splashdowns and recoveries for the following missions: Gemini 9, June 1966 with USS Wasp (CVS-18); Gemini 10, July 1966 with USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7); Gemini 11, September 1966 with USS Guam; (LPH-9); Apollo 11, July 1969 with the USS Hornet (CVS-12); and Apollo 15, August 1972 with the USS Okinawa (LPH-3). The collection also includes two 35 mm black and white negative strips from Apollo 15, a small contact sheet of 35 mm three negatives from Apollo 11, and a few 35 mm copy slides of official National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) photographs. A set of digital scans of most of the original slides was provided by the donor on a USB flash drive.
Arrangement:
Slides are arranged by space mission recovery event, with black and white negatives appearing at the end of the collection.
Biographical / Historical:
Donald W. Blair (1933-2018) served in the Army from 1953 to 1955, and then attended the Cambridge School of Radio and TV in Manhattan, New York. The first 10 years of his career were spent in local radio before he joined the Mutual Network and from 1966 until 1989 he worked at Mutual, WCBS Radio, ABC Entertainment and NBC. Blair covered astronaut splashdowns and recoveries for the following missions: Gemini 9, June 1966 with USS Wasp (CVS-18); Gemini 10, July 1966 with USS Guadalcanal (LPH-7); Gemini 11, September 1966 with USS Guam; (LPH-9); Apollo 11, July 1969 with the USS Hornet (CVS-12); and Apollo 15, August 1972 with the USS Okinawa (LPH-3). Blair detailed his experience in his book, Splashdown: NASA and the Navy, which was published in 2004.
Provenance:
Robert Fish, Gift, 2019, NASM.2019.0034
Restrictions:
No restrictions on access
Rights:
Material is subject to Smithsonian Terms of Use. Should you wish to use NASM material in any medium, please submit an Application for Permission to Reproduce NASM Material, available at Permissions Requests.
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