Rare acrylic display containing a piece of aft heat shield from the AS-201 (CSM-009) spacecraft, which launched from Cape Kennedy LC-34 on February 26, 1966, and splashed down 37 minutes later in the South Atlantic Ocean. The fragment measures 1.5″ x 1″ x .5″ and is encased in an embellished 6″ x 4.25″ x .75″ Lucite pen holder presented to E. P. Rauch, an employee at Rockwell International Corp. In fine condition, with slight scuffing, and some dents to metal pen holder. AS-201 was the first uncrewed test flight of an entire production Block I Apollo command and service module and the Saturn IB launch vehicle. The suborbital flight was a partially successful demonstration of the service propulsion system and the reaction control systems of both modules, and successfully demonstrated the capability of the command module's heat shield to survive re-entry from low Earth orbit.
