6038 - Mercury Program (6) Artifact Fragments from Each Manned Mission (Attested as Flown)

Mercury Program (6) Artifact Fragments from Each Manned Mission (Attested as Flown) Mercury-Atlas 6 launch day FDC with a cachet honoring the Mercury 7, postmarked at Cape Canaveral on February 20, 1962, bearing tiny affixed fragments of artifacts attested as flown during each of the six crewed Mercury missions: parachute from MR-3, tape from MR-4, heatshield from MA-6, lanyard from MA-7, heatshield from MA-8, and heatshield from MA-9. Numbered “55” and signed on the reverse by Florian Noller of Been in Space. In fine condition. Accompanied by a four-page certificate of authenticity packet signed by Noller, illustrating and documenting the larger source artifacts from which the six flown fragments were taken. The packet traces the MR-3 parachute material to a section retained by Mercury telemetry technician Harold N. French after Alan Shepard’s Freedom 7 flight; the MR-4 tape to insulating material removed from Gus Grissom’s recovered Liberty Bell 7 during its restoration at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center; the MA-6 heatshield fragment to a presentation originating from the personal collection of longtime NASA employee Paul M. Sturtevant; the MA-7 lanyard to survival-gear retaining material recovered with Scott Carpenter’s Aurora 7; and the MA-8 and MA-9 fragments to heatshield presentations from Wally Schirra’s Sigma 7 and Gordon Cooper’s Faith 7.