Flown gold-plated Fliteline medallion, approximately one inch in diameter, flown aboard the Gemini 8 mission. One side bears a raised insignia of the mission, with reverse engraved “First to dock in space. 16, March, 1966.” Accompanied by a letter of authenticity from Dave Scott which reads, in part: “I hereby certify that the gold-plated Gemini VIII medallion included with this letter was flown aboard the Gemini VIII mission…This medallion has been in my personal collection since we returned from the mission.” Condition is mint state. Gemini VIII completed the world's first orbital docking. What followed the successful docking by Armstrong were some of the most hair-raising few minutes in space-program history. The Gemini VIII capsule, still docked to the Agena, began rolling continuously. Never having faced this in simulation, the crew undocked from the Agena. The problem was a stuck thruster on the spacecraft, which now tumbled even faster at the dizzying rate of one revolution per second. The only way to stop the motion was to use the capsule's reentry control thrusters, which meant that Armstrong and Scott had to cut short their mission and make an emergency return to Earth 10 hours after launch. Provenance: Dave Scott. RRAuction COA.
