Let me introduce myself.....

My name is Rick Mulheirn. Born in England at the beginning of the space race, I am very much a child of the space age. At some long forgotten point during the mid sixties I was bitten by "The Space Bug"; a passion for all things related to Manned Spaceflight, in particular the American space program. Please permit me to share with you my collection of Manned Spaceflight artifacts. I do so as a mark of my respect and admiration for all those men and women who made it possible.......

Written permission is needed from me for any individual or organisation wishing to use images or text from this site.

An AWESOME experience.

I finally managed to fulfill an ambition of 45 years standing when on May 11th, 2009 I witnessed first hand the launch of STS-125. Here are just a few of my favourite shots taken from the trip.  Unfortunately, bad weather at The Cape meant Atlantis was waived off to Edwards Air Force Base for the landing.

Little did I know that 8 years after witnessing the launch I would meet mission Commander Scott "Scooter" Altman and he would present me with a flown STS-125 crew patch, mounted on a photo montage signed by the entire crew. A fantastic memento from the final Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission. Thank you Scooter!

The orbiter Atlantis as she appears today: on display at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The Moonwalkers.

Landing on the moon is recorded in many a textbook as mankinds greatest achievement to date. The men that set foot on the lunar surface perceived as the best of the best; men who had "The Right Stuff". In reality any of the astronaut corp were capable, in my opinion, of writing their names in to the history books. Here are signed iconic images of those that did.

Watermarks" applied courtesy of Andy Green. FBIS, FRAS.

The Gemini program.

President Kennedy's famous Rice University speech on September 12, 1962 set his nation on the path to the moon; in effect the starting pistol that triggered the race with the Soviets. But to get there they would need to perfect many of the technical challenges and procedures first, in low earth orbit. That is where the Gemini program came in. Forgotten by many, the Gemini program was an essential step on the road to the moon.  

This unflown Reaction Control System (RCS) rocket engine was built by  North American Aviation's Rocktdyne Division of Sacramento, California. 

Located forward of the crew compartment in an independent RCS module. It consisted of two completely independent systems, each containing eight 25-pound thrusters.

 The purpose of the RCS engines were to maintain the attitude of the spacecraft during the reentry phase of the mission

The first rendezvous of two manned spacecraft: Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 on December 15th, 1965. 

Gemini 4 commander James McDivitt with a commemorative Fliteline medallion carried aboard the spacecraft in his Personal Preference Kit or PPK.

During the flight Edward White became the first American to walk in space. 

Each astronaut carried a PPK or Personal Preference Kit. Within were personal keepsakes for family and friends including proud symbols of the nation that had put them there.

 This 6x4 silk flag, was carried in Commander McDivitt's PPK.

Lucite display pieces containing heatshield fragments from Gemini spacecraft are not uncommon but this display, made by McDonnell Douglas machinist Norm Pavy is a little bit special. It is my understanding Norm typically made only a handful of these for each flight - typically between 3 and 8. One would be given to each of the crew, while Norm retained one for himself. The remaining pieces were distributed by McDonnell Douglas as they saw fit. Only GT-8 saw considerably more examples (approx 16). The entire heatshield was removed from the spacecraft providing Norm with more material from which to work. 

Apollo 1 Tribute

I stumbled across this artifact in the possession of renowned UK collector David Worrow in the Fall of 2010. He had purchased this piece from the Atwood estate some 10 years previous. David formed the opinion, based upon the wording of the label, that J. Leland Atwood (President, CEO and Chairman of North American Aviation) considered this connector to be the ignition source for the Apollo 1 fire, January 27th, 1967.

The Apollo 204 Review Board came to the conclusion that the fire initiated in the vicinity of the Environmental Control Unit (ECU) located in the lower left side of the Command Module. Max Faget suggested it was the result of chaffing to wiring insulation in a bundle of cables adjacent to the ECU access door. This however was pure speculation. Evidence to the contrary included eyewitness statements from NAA personnel who had inspected the wiring on the morning of January 27th.

It raises the question… “What, if anything had changed?” Prior to January 27th the spacecraft had undergone 4 altitude tests at the same pure oxygen pressure level for a total of 6 hours with no problems.The only test difference was a gas chromatograph had been removed from the vehicle on the morning of the fire; the connector powering this device had been left in place.

Post fire evaluation confirmed that movement of the connector would have been sufficient to cause an electrical arc. The connector was still powered at the time of the fire.

Gyro data suggests that Gus Grissom left his couch 35 seconds before the first report of fire. Telemetry from the chromatograph cable then shows a power surge consistent with an electrical arc. Grissom returned to his couch and seconds later came the first report of fire.

Where...... one might ask was the live chromatograph cable located? In the lower left side of the Command Module in the vicinity of the Environmental Control Unit, close to Grissom’s feet.


Significantly, the painstaking post fire investigation discovered the chromatograph cable was not in the position in which it had been left by the NAA personnel on the morning of January 27th.

We may never know with any certainty whether or not this connector was responsible for starting the flash fire on that fateful January day. Whether or not this was part of the suspect gas chromatograh cable. “Lee” Atwood passed away in 1999 and left no details about the items in his personal collection.
But according to Larry Korb, Engineering Supervisor of Metals and Producibility for North American Aviation, and a member of the Apollo 204 Investigation Team supporting the Apollo 204 Review Board...."the type of hardware, the label and the date are all consistent with it coming from the Apollo 204 spacecraft." Further examination by Larry of close-up images suggest this component reached temperatures in the region of 1900 degrees and 2500 degrees farenheit. This is consistent with findings of the Apollo Fire Review Board. Furthermore this presentation is consistent with other known Apollo 1 displays produced by NAA at the time.

It was Atwood himself who confirmed that he had kept items from the Apollo fire in his office. In a paper entitled “Apollo Spacecraft Program and Additional Notes” dated August 1989 Atwood wrote “I have had some samples of the spacecraft wire in my desk since the fire”. Previously, in a paper with equally limited distribution entitled “The Apollo Fire; An Analysis by J. Leland Atwood”, published in October 1988 he came to the conclusion “The most probable source was a slightly loosened wire connection where the cycle of electrical resistance, heat and oxygen corrosion progressively increased until the wire insulation caught fire”

My research suggests this connector, recovered from the Apollo 204 spacecraft just five weeks after the blaze (the ID label on the reverse is dated March 2nd, 1967), is typical of numerous identical connectors used throughout the vehicle, one of which in the opinion of Atwood, possibly this one, was the most likely ignition source.

40 plus years after the fire (an episode described by Wernher von Braun as “A blind spot”), the topic remains a very sensitive subject and naturally so.

Atwood commissioned this display as a poignant reminder of a particularly troubling day for every body associated with the space program; a permanent reminder helping prevent blind spots occurring in the future.

Yet the Challenger and Columbia disasters, it could be argued are examples of subsequent blind spots; were lessons had not been learned.

There is a tendency to keep hidden reminders of the tragedy. Moves to have the spacecraft placed on display have to date proved fruitless and the vehicle remains locked away in an anonymous hanger at Langley Research Center.

It is my understanding anywhere between 50 and 100 artifacts were made using material recovered from the Apollo 204 spacecraft. Intended for senior managers and employees at NAA they are rarely seen; few admit to even owning them.

Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee pose in front of the launch vehicle on Pad 34 shortly before they were killed in the spacecraft fire of January 27th, 1967.

With thanks to cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, I was able recently to fly aboard the International Space Station an Apollo 1 crew patch. In space for 6 months, this was my tribute to a crew without whom none of this would have been possible. RIP Gus, Ed and Roger.

Gennady signing the Certificate of Authenticity shortly after his successful mission.

Flown Apollo artifacts.

Regarded by many as the ultimate spaceflight collectible, flown artifacts from the golden age of manned spaceflight can be considered pieces of history.

It is evident that Lunar Module Pilots shared a bond as illustrated by these two items. This US flag, flown originally by Walt Cunningham on his own Apollo 7 mission was subsequently flown to lunar orbit by his Apollo 15 counterpart James Irwin.

In December 1968 this Apollo 8 embroidered patch was flown to the moon on man's first journey to another celestial body. Carried by Lunar Module Pilot William Anders and subsequently gifted to Walt Cunningham I recently had the opportunity to reacquaint Apollo 8 Command Module Pilot and all round legend Jim Lovell with a patch that had accompanied him to the moon and back.

It proved ironic, that having raced the Soviets the moon, mankind discovered the Earth with arguably the most famous photograph of all time.

I have been fortunate to meet eight of the men to have walked on the moon. Jim Lovell sadly did not get the chance following his aborted Apollo 13 mission but meeting him in October 2015 was a privilege.   

Apollo 9 (March 3-13, 1969) saw the first manned flight of both Apollo spacecraft (CSM and LM) and the first use of the Apollo A7L EVA suit in the vacuum of space.

350 Robbins Medallions were flown and crew manifests indicate “400 patches”. There is no evidence to suggest the patches were anything other than mission patches. What is known is that 3 different manufacturers produced these patches but which ones remains a mystery. Lion Brothers and AB Emblem can be ruled out judging by their contemporary versions of the Apollo 9 patch. 

Other companies produced patches for the early Apollo flights including the Stylized Emblem Co, Texas Art Embroidery and Dallas Cap & Badge. I suspect one or possibly all three manufactured the flown Apollo 9 patches but I have nothing to corroborate the theory. 

This particular patch is known at the “Crew Patch Variant”. According to the excellent website crewpatches.com, “roughly a quarter of all mission-flown embroidered patches are of this kind”… and consequently is considered rare. 

Sadly, I never had an opportunity to photograph Jim McDivitt with these artefacts. Thankfully Novaspace Galleries (aka Astronaut Central) who handled the sale of many items from Jim’s personal collection did have him sign comprehensive, illustrated letters of authenticity for both.

Of all the Robbins medallion designs Apollo X I think is the most striking and my favourite. It captures particularly well the objectives of the mission. This example was obtained directly from Skylab astronaut Ed Gibson.