As a special way of showing my appreciation to all of you that have been doing such a great job on this Forum, I want to share with you the following. I was in the Randall shop and museum yesterday and I took these pictures of one of my favorite displays there. Remember the pictures were through glass but they came out pretty good.

The knife is Astronaut Col. Leroy Gordon Cooper's Randall Astro. The witnessed letter on the Randall letterhead was signed by the shop employees but the signatures have fade with age.

NASA EXPERIENCE: Colonel Cooper was selected as a Mercury astronaut in April 1959.

On May 15-16, 1963, he piloted the "Faith 7" spacecraft on a 22-orbit mission which concluded the operational phase of Project Mercury. During the 34 hours and 20 minutes of flight, Faith 7 attained an apogee of 166 statute miles and a speed of 17,546 miles per hour and traveled 546,167 statute miles.

Cooper served as command pilot of the 8-day 120-revolution Gemini 5 mission which began on August 21, 1965. It was on this flight that he and pilot Charles Conrad established a new space endurance record by traveling a distance of 3,312,993 miles in an elapsed time of 190 hours and 56 minutes. Cooper also became the first man to make a second orbital flight and thus won for the United States the lead in man-hours in space by accumulating a total of 225 hours and 15 minutes.

He served as backup command pilot for Gemini 12 and as backup commander for Apollo X.

Colonel Cooper logged 222 hours in space.

He retired from the Air Force and NASA in 1970.

PERSONAL DATA: Born March 6, 1927 in Shawnee, Oklahoma. His interests included treasure hunting, archeology, racing, flying, skiing, boating, hunting and fishing. Gordon Cooper passed away on October 4, 2004, at his home in Ventura, California, at the age of 77.

WOW !!!!!!!!!

Is it known what he carried in the handle? Great piece of History!
Boardrider

The Mercury capsule Liberty Bell 7, flown by astronaut Gus Grissom for 15 minutes in space on July 21, 1961, was recovered almost 38 years to the day since it sank. Among the recovered artifacts was Captain Grissom's Randall knife. For those of you that have not seen it, here it is as it looked when recovered and during restoration. Though the Randall shop was contacted after recovery, the restoration was not done by the shop..... I don't have a clue why.

On another forum, it was asked what was the "Holy Grail" for different collectors. It is totally unattainable for me but I would have to say that the Grissom knife and the Francis Gary Power's #8 would have to be my two.

I don't think the Randall Shop would have been the right place to send the knife. I don't think their experience in "restoration" would apply here. Gary routinely turns away vintage knives sent in for refinish so as not to adversely affect their value.

The Grissom Astro needed to be "cleaned" by the removal of oxidation and mineral deposits. My guess is a good portion of this cleaning was done chemically which is reflected in the photos. I don't think the Randall shop has the facilities or abililty to tackle a project such as this. Museums have people that do this type of cleaning to various materials and it is a science.

I totally agree with the above. They probably let is sit in a saline bath for a few years before restoring it much like they do when they bring up sunken ship parts. It is quite amazing to see the difference between bringing it up and exposing it to air vs. putting in a saline bath and letting the salts out slowly. Honestly, that looks like all they did to the knife to resore it.

Colonel Cooper's Astro has my vote as the most valuable knife of the 20th century. Historical, provable provenance, the magnanimous (sp?) gesture provided by his returning it to Orlando and the general ambiance its presence adds to the RMK museum are beyond reproach.