"I think people are fascinated by the detail and textures of what people have taken into space," Weitekamp says. But in the early days of space exploration, there wasn't much room for stuff of any kind, though each astronaut was allowed to bring along a handful of personal items, usually consisting of small souvenirs the astronauts wanted to bring back as presents. The right stuff may be a critical requirement for astronauts. Weitekamp, the harmonica and bells were the first musical instruments ever played in space. The quirky artifacts, which Schirra and Stafford donated in 1967, are included in a display of personal items astronauts have taken into space, along with such standard-issue gear as long underwear and survival knives. Today that harmonica, a tiny, four-hole, eight-note Little Lady model manufactured by Hohner, as well as five small bells of the kind that might embellish a Christmas wreath, reside in a gallery on the second floor of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Then ground controllers heard the strains, both familiar and otherworldly, of "Jingle Bells," played on a harmonica backed by-what else?-miniature sleigh bells. The bells and the Hohner harmonica, played in space, are on view in the museum's exhibition "Apollo to the Moon." The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit." I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. You just might let me pick up that thing. Looks like he might be going to re-enter soon. "We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit. Schirra recounted the moment when Stafford contacted Mission Control in Schirra's Space, a memoir he wrote with Richard Billings: Then, just before Stafford and Schirra were scheduled to reenter Earth's atmosphere December 16, the pair reported they had sighted some sort of U.F.O. Its success demonstrated to Mission Control that when it came to linking two vehicles in space, Houston did not have a problem. (Schirra then eased his craft away, and the crews settled in for a short winter's nap.) The maneuver required the most exacting pilot and computer control of a space vehicle yet attempted. Schirra and Stafford maneuvered their capsule to within a few feet of the sister ship for the first, historic, prearranged meeting in space. Gemini 6 had been launched into orbit several days after Gemini 7. Stafford, aboard Gemini 6, rendezvoused in space with Gemini 7, piloted by Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. As a distant war was intensifying and the city of New Orleans was slowly recovering from a hurricane's devastation, ten days before Christmas 1965, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration got an early holiday present: astronauts Walter M.
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