lightthiscandle:

I know I’ve often talked about Deke Slayton’s special astronaut pin, a story that never ceases to move me. I recently found a photo that added even more depth to the story.

From Retro Space Images, this is a photo of the Apollo-Soyuz crew’s trip to the White House in September 1974 to meet President Gerald Ford, who had been in office for a month. During the visit, everyone in the ASTP entourage wore a lapel pin of the mission patch. This photo shows Alexei Leonov pinning the badge on President Ford and making him a part of the “team.”

Men’s fashion dictates that lapel pins should be worn on the left side of the suit, and that only one pin should be worn at one time. Everyone in the room that day was following this rule. Everyone, that is, except for Deke.

It’s hard to see in this picture, but Slayton is the only person who isn’t wearing the ASTP pin on the left side. Instead, as usual, he’s wearing his Apollo 1 astronaut pin. Other photos from the day show him wearing the ASTP pin - but on the right side of the suit, bringing his total number of lapel pins to two. Slayton had to wear the mission pin in order to fit in with the rest of the team, but he made clear which pin was priority.

It’s true that Ford was probably the fourth or fifth President that Deke had met; in fact, he’d probably seen him at several events before this day. Still, one might think that if there were any time to follow fashion etiquette to the letter, it would be a visit to the White House to pose with the leader of the free world.

But Deke didn’t care.

lightthiscandle:

Swarmed by photographers, President Kennedy calls astronaut Gordon Cooper to congratulate him minutes after Cooper returned to Earth from his Faith 7 flight.

ourpresidents:

Baseball great, Jackie Robinson with President Eisenhower and comedian Joe E. Brown at the White House on May 14, 1957.

-from the Eisenhower Library

(via todaysdocument)

todaysdocument:

“I respectfully remind you sir, that we have been the most patient of all people.”

-Letter from Jackie Robinson to President Eisenhower of May 13, 1958

After he retired from Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson went on to champion the cause of civil rights from his position as a prominent executive of the Chock Full o’Nuts Corporation.

Robinson had grown increasingly impatient with what he regarded as President Eisenhower’s failure to act decisively in combating racism. In this letter dated May 13, 1958, he expresses his frustration and calls upon the President to finally guarantee Federal support of black civil rights.

Read more at Featured Documents…

deadpresidents:

Exactly.

It’s important to note that I don’t find any of the Presidents boring, so don’t ever be surprised at how many words I can write about somebody who might be considered plain.  I’m a guy who has a half-dozen books about Franklin Pierce and doesn’t think that’s nearly enough.  Hell, I’m a guy who has NINE books about Pope Francis!  The man’s been Pope for two months!  This is my life.

lightthiscandle:

Apollo 14 hanging out with Gerald Ford

spacewatching:

After arrival at Cape Canaveral Missile Test Annex, (Skid Strip), President John F. Kennedy (left) is welcomed by a Color Guard. Dr. Kurt Debus is at right. The President is touring Complex 37, CCMTA.

(via lightthiscandle)

— President Obama

(via janf)

(via janf)

— Bill Clinton

(via janf)

(via janf)

ourpresidents:

Moon Tongs

This Saturday, The National Archives and its Presidential Libraries will be at the National Air and Space Museum’s annual Space Day.  

We’ll be hosting activities including:

• A Mission Checklist hunt for Apollo-related items at the National Archives and the Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
• A Presidential Pop Quiz on U.S. Presidents and the Space Program.
  

Want a head start on your Mission Checklist? These Moon Tongs were used by Apollo mission astronauts to collect lunar samples.

The tongs are from the holdings of the Nixon Presidential Library and can be seen for a limited time in the “Nixon and the U.S. Space Program” display at the National Archives in D.C.

Images:
Close-up view of a set of tongs, an Apollo Lunar Hand Tool, being used by Astronaut Charles Conrad Jr., to pick up lunar samples during the Apollo XII mission, November 19, 1969. Photo courtesy of NASA.

President Nixon standing in the Oval Office holding the set of tongs used by astronauts during Moon surface explorations, January 27, 1970.

This set of tongs was used to collect lunar samples from the “Ocean of Storms,” the largest dark spot on the Moon’s surface, during the Apollo XII mission. It was presented to President Nixon by astronauts Charles Conrad, Jr., Richard Gordon, Jr., and Alan Bean.

More on the Presidents and the Space Program from this year’s Centennial Celebrations of Presidents Nixon and Ford

Is this celebration at all presidential libraries or just Ford and Nixon’s? Because space day at the JFK Library would be super-sweet! 

Edit: Oh, I see, it’s at NASM, not at the libraries. All the better, I have to study tomorrow.

(via todaysdocument)