Unrecorded Facts in Space History

9. How many astronaut crews named their spacecraft unofficially during the Gemini program? Of course Grissom called Gemini 3 “Molly Brown.” And I have seen a minutia of remarks about Gemini 4 being called “American Eagle” or “Little Eva,” and Gemini 5 being called “Conestoga” or “Lady Bird”, but what of the other seven Gemini flights that have no unofficial designation? It is hard to believe that they wouldn’t have some kind of nickname.

10.What of the three Skylab flights? Beyond the nomenclature of Skylab2, 3 and 4 did the crews call their Apollo spacecraft by any other unofficial name?

11. What of backup crew patches? Did every backup crew in the Apollo era create a special patch? I have found such patches from the Gemini 7 and 12 missions? Are they authentic? I have found documentation of the backup crew patch for Apollo 14. Are there any other such Apollo patches?

12. What about the crew quarters that were used prior to liftoff during Mercury through Skylab? Do they still exist? Or have they been remodeled for some other purpose, such as offices or storage?

13. Was a mock-up of the “Big Gemini” spacecraft ever produced? Has any of this hardware survived? Are there any pictures of the interiors of these mock-ups available?

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