PRINTHouston, we have memorabilia
BILL CRAWFORD
In his cartoon “Closer and Closer,” artist Bill Crawford depicts the importance of the first spacewalks that happened in conjunction with the Gemini missions.
March 5, 2009 | 12:00 a.m. CST
The early ’60s: None of that hippy nonsense was rearing its head; Vietnam was merely a policing action; and it was simply NATO against the Warsaw Pact, not the United States against everyone else. The St. Louis Gemini Story at the State Historical Society of Missouri showcases an important period in this era through photographs, newspaper articles and editorial cartoons. It also shows how the McDonnell Aircraft Corporation in St. Louis helped the United States win the space race and open the sky for our eventual touchdown on the moon.
About half of the pictures are donations from former McDonnell employees, and some were housed at the Western Historical Manuscript Collection in St. Louis, according to Craig Hadley, who compiled the different artifacts for his master’s in museum studies at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Many of the employees who donated to the project had spent their entire working lives at McDonnell. “It was great for them [the workers] to feel like their life’s work was worth something,” Hadley says.
What: St. Louis Gemini Story
Where: State Historical Society of Missouri in Ellis Library on the MU campus
When: Through May 31
Price: Free
Hours: Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 4:45 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
The Gemini missions were the first American space missions to send two people into orbit. They also were the first missions where the astronauts would leave the ship to perform space walks. The missions were critical to the success of the Apollo missions because they made it possible for two crafts to dock together in orbit, says Dr. Craig Kluever, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at MU. This docking capability was used on Apollo missions when the lunar lander safely touched down on the moon and then reconnected with an orbiting ship. The ship would then return the astronauts back to earth. (The Apollo missions are best remembered for the scientific zenith that was moon golfing.)
The most striking feature of the exhibit and the pieces that truly express the culture of the day as well as American nationalism are the editorial cartoons. They were not originally part of Hadley’s collection but were added by the Historical Society to provide context to the exhibit. Some portray protests against what was perceived as reckless spending by the Kennedy administration. One shows a small child losing a game of poker to a brawny man in a military uniform. “JFK Budget” is written on the deck. Scrawled cross the child’s sweater are the words “Social Services.” On the left breast of the man’s shirt are the words “Arms and Space Spending,” and he is hoarding a massive pile of poker chips. The caption reads “Better Luck Next Time, Kid!,” an obvious jab at John F. Kennedy’s penchant for ruining the dreams of small children in card games. Others are über-patriotic depictions of America’s ever-increasing dominance in the space race. In one cartoon, Father Time is seen holding an open book in which “Longest Flight and Man Hour Recorded” is written in huge letters. In the background a Gemini craft is seen hurtling toward it while the astronauts ride it like some sort of Dr. Strangelove homage. The ship is emblazoned with the words “U.S. Space Superiority,” and the caption reads “Welcome Mat.”
The St. Louis Gemini Story is not the only interesting space age event to blast off in March. Today (March 5) is full of space milestones.
•1958: The Explorer 2 satellite, the successor to the United State’s first orbiting satellite, failed to reach orbit due to a faulty ignition. Maybe not a milestone, but think of it as a multi-million dollar bottle rocket.
•1978: The Landsat 3 satellite blasted off with the intention of capturing images of Earth from orbit. Do the good people at Google owe some money to the government for this idea?
•1982: Not to rule out the reds, Russian lander Venera 14 managed to orbit and touch down on Venus and send back grainy images from the planet’s surface but offering little evidence to the long-held notion that this is where women come from.
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