What does a Gemini astronaut carry is his survival kit ?

You may be surprised:

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=wex...irror&hl=en

This aritcle makes for a fascinating read. I'd love to find out more about the survival kit ... and I wonder if LBJ's predictions of a man on the moon will ever be realized ? LOL

The kit seems like a very sensible assemblage for an astronaut who would be plunked down somewhere in an ocean - "water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink"

Love reading vintage articles like that, thanks. A raft and a machete - hedging their bets.

Lots of hostile territory to land in back then. If not an ocean then a hostile nation.

Would LBJ have predicted that the space program would peak in 1969? 2012 is the 40th anniversary of the final Apollo mission. Apollo 11 is my first memory of a news event, I remember watching it live on television. My other earliest memory of a news event was the Manson murders (we lived in Los Angeles).

Pretty incredible what was achieved between 1957 (Sputnik) and 1969 (Apollo 11). The Cold War made for a hot race to space.

Now China has aspirations for the moon.

http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo.html

I hope China can get the United States off its duff. We won the Cold War but now things are worse.

Jeanette Isabelle

at least we chose a nice warm location near the equator, where the Earth has greater rotational acceleration to help sling the craft into space... cold weather at Shuang Cheng Tzu has got to be a problem for them

Aside: this may interest some of you.

I have a first edition of Charles Lindbergh's "The Spirit of St. Louis" (1953) in my library. The appendix is particularly interesting, including this:

Emergency Equipment Carried in the Spirit of St. Louis on the flights between San Diego and Paris

1 air raft, with pump and repair kit
1 canteen of water -- 4 quarts
1 Armbrust cup
5 cans of Army emergency rations
1 hunting knife
1 ball of cord
1 ball of string
1 large needle
1 flashlight
4 red flares, sealed in rubber tubes
1 match safe with matches
1 hack-saw blade

(Lindbergh was of course not the first to cross the Atlantic by air, but his flight has captured the popular imagination more than any other. And BTW, the script for Jimmy Stewart's film version captured the writing style of the book brilliantly.)