TITUSVILLE, Fla. – The American Space Museum & Walk of Fame in Titusville is auctioning off an array of “rare and historic” space items this weekend.
Among these items are a Mercury spacecraft launch escape rocket motor used for the Little Joe test flights.
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Little Joe was a solid-fueled booster rocket used by NASA for eight launches from 1959-1960 from Wallops Island, Virginia to test the launch escape system.
Museum spokesman Charles Jeffries told News 6 the Mercury spacecraft launch escape rocket motor was the first step in the evolution of sending American astronauts into space.
Jeffries said the tests were designed to ensure the safety of astronauts before any man was allowed to fly.
“The Juno rocket engine S-3 was used to send some of America’s first satellites and primates in space,” Jeffries said. ”The items offered in the American Space Museum auctions represent items found nowhere else.”
Photos of the items are impressive, ranging from a heat shield from the Gemini B spacecraft to a signed first-day cover by the crew of Apollo 11. Jeffries said it was signed before the crew left for the moon in 1969.
The auction will be held at the American Space Museum & Walk of Fame, located at 308 Pine St., as well as online at the following website.
The bidding starts Saturday at noon or you can call the museum at 321-264-0434.