Gene Kranz’s operations manual for Mercury-Atlas 9, entitled “Mercury/Atlas Network Countdown,” April 5, 1963, with tabbed sections including “Flight Plan,” “Activities & Procedures,” “Check Lists,” “Mission Rules O/R,” “O/R Guidelines,” “Orbital, Re-Entry,” and “MR Support Data,” among others. The manual is in its original 10.5 x 11.5 McDonnell Project Mercury binder. Several pages have ballpoint or red pencil notations written by Kranz. Some tears to binder holes on the left sides of the pages and one of the binder’s rings is loose, otherwise fine condition. Accompanied by a signed letter of provenance from Kranz, in part: “ My MA-9 mission used ‘Goody Book ‘that accompanies this letter comes from my personal mission files.” Mercury-Atlas 9 was the final manned space mission of the Mercury program, launched on May 15, 1963, during which Gordon Cooper completed 22 Earth orbits in the Faith 7 spacecraft. The Leon Ford Collection.
