Favorite Rocketry/Space related Souvenier?

[KenECoyote]

I went on a cruise recently and fortunately our ship arrived at Florida 2 hours earlier than planned so I was able to go visit Kennedy Space Center for about 4-5 hours before they closed. It was pretty much unplanned, but oh so good!

My in-laws were with me and they're usually pretty harsh on picking on any odd behavior (bullies?), but I saw an item in the store which I JUST COULD NOT RESIST...a chair!



So yes, I bought a souvenir chair on vacation and I love it!

Anyone else care to share some nice rocketry/space related finds at gift shops (or elsewhere) while on vacay?

 

[SecondRow]

We got my youngest son this shirt at KSC and it was his favorite. He’s outgrown it now, so it’s in the donation box.

This next one is mine, but I’m not sure it counts. It’s not a souvenir from a gift shop or anything. I just saw it online and had to have it.

 

[mjennings]

I have a shot glass I picked up at US Space and Rocket Center from when I interned at Redstone. It has an astronaut holding on to the side of it. It's been well used. Next would be my collection of patches and stickers from Shuttle/ISS missions I worked for the 2.5 years I was at KSC.

 

[fyrwrxz]

I picked up one of those astronaut statues made by Franklin Mint back in the day from a thrift store and had Pete Conrad sign it on the bottom.

 

[Scott_650]

My wife bought me one of those little squares of kapton foil from the Apollo 11 CM as a retirement gift - yeah, it’s a little bit silly but I like having it on the mantle along with my Mercury Seven GI Joe and Estes RTF 1/200 Saturn V

 

[Sooner Boomer]

I've got two baseball caps with mission patches. They're from STS-42 and STS-65. These are the International Microgravity Laboratory missions, from the mid '90's. We (OU Indust. Engr.) had experiments involving the crew on those flights.

 

[Banzai88]

My military retirement flag was flown onboard STS 134, Endeavour.

 

[GuyNoir]

I have an American flag that flew to orbit on STS-37, Jay Apt’s first flight.

 

[msjohnso]

I have two items that are basically irreplaceable:
- A baseball cap with our NAR section (KOSMO #427) logo and the signatures of Jack Lousma, Fred Haise, Gerry Griffin, Milt Windler, Gene Kranz, and Guenter Wendt. Completely irreplaceable as Guenter passed away about 6 weeks after the event where I got the autographs (an Apollo 13 commemoration at the Kansas Cosmosphere some time back).
- A bookmark-sized piece of ripstop nylon parachute from a Black Brant XII recovery package flown from Poker Flat in the 1980s or thereabouts. This came to me in my copy of Neil Davis' book Rockets Over Alaska.

 

[boomtube-mk2]

A rock I picked-up on the Moon.
Bigfoot was my co-pilot!

 

[Mx2]

My dad, deceased, had a small mfg. business of electronic circuit boards in mid-late 60's. So the story goes his company built some boards for NASA program and probably like others, were sent this 1971 NASA produced book of photos. Inside cover shows it's available for purchase for $4. I like the first version but regardless it's a unique item associated to a person of unique abilities in creating and processes. The world just had to catch up.

 

[Grog6]

I have a copyof the Lunar bible on microfilm, the packet has a list of names that includes my dad. the packet like it was left on the moon by apollo 12

 

[Rob Caswell]

I have a sliver of wood, about 4" long, that came from the original TV Enterprise model during one of its Smithsonian restorations. It came from the engine nacelle, which had to be bored out to make room for slightly larger motors to power the "spinners" on the nacelle's front. It looks completely unremarkable, but it's my equivalent of having a piece of The True Cross.

And yes - it's flown as payload on a few flights!