Page 26 - The Appollo Story

Apollo 9 (AS-
504) Spider and
.. Gumdrop - The
photo is of Rusty
Schweickart emerg-
ing from the hatch of
the CM. The photo
bears a flown Kapton
foil fragment of the
Apollo 9 Command
Module. The source
of the Kapton foil is a
Rockwell engineer
who acquired the foil
pieces from the re-
covery team. The
space capsules of the
Apollo program were
covered with a very
thin layer of pressure-
sens iti ve Kapton
polyimide tape. This
tape is coated with
aluminium and oxi-
dized silicon monox-
ide to help protect the
spacecraft from the
extreme temperatures
of outer space. Much
of it, but not all, burns
away during the beat
of re-entry. Members
of the recovery team
and other mission
members were known
to collect as souvenirs
bits of this outer skin
that survived re-entry.
Members of the re-
covery team and other
mission members
were known to collect
as souvenirs bits of
this outer skin that
survived re-entry.