The Liberty Bell 7

The Liberty Bell 7 was the capsule that flew on board a Mercury-Redstone rocket for the second U.S. manned spaceflight with Gus Grissom in 1961. This was a suborbital flight that only lasted a little over fifteen minutes and all went well until splashdown.

The hatch cover was designed to release via a small explosive device in the event of an emergency. For some reason, it was unintentionally activated shortly after the capsule landed in the ocean. Gus Grissom escaped safely (though he would later die in the Apollo 1 fire), but the capsule sank before it could be recovered.

Nearly 40 years later in 1999 it was finally recovered in 16,000 feet of water after a fourteen year private effort to find and retrieve it financed by the Discovery Channel. Ironically, while the emergency explosive device on the hatch exploded when it wasn’t supposed to, another explosive device designed to produce a sound to aid location in the event of sinking did not detonate. This had to be removed upon recovery.

After the Liberty Bell 7 was taken apart, cleaned and reassembled it went on a national tour for several years. Today, it’s home is in the Cosmosphere, a museum in Kansas, but in October 2000 when these pictures were taken it was at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

PC Clones - Premiere Issue - 1987

PC Clones was a short-lived spin-off of Computer Shopper. I'm not sure what the point was as Computer Shopper already covered PC related stuff. I guess maybe they were trying to publish a more normal sized magazine vs. the phone book sized monstrosity that Computer Shopper was. The premiere issue from 1987 includes:

PC Clones - Premiere Issue - 1987

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (433-436)

All of the photos in this set were taken in the late 1960s and all were likely taken in the Lansing, Michigan area.

The last photo was processed in February 1968. This photo appears to have been taken on Christmas as I see decorations and presents being opened so this was probably Christmas 1967.

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (433-436)

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (429-432)

Most of the photos in this set are probably from the late 1960s and early 1970s. All except one were probably taken in the Lansing, Michigan area.

The first photo is undated and unlabeled. It shows a kids baseball game. This looks like it could be either the late 1960s or early 1970s.

Vintage Photos - Lot 6 (429-432)/a>