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JESCO VON PUTTKAMER et al : 1963 - 1972 ORIGINAL PERSONAL JOURNAL OF SPEECHES, DATA, NOTES AND RELATED EPHEMERA OF A CELEBRATED NASA EXECUTIVE DURING THE PROLIFIC YEARS OF THE RACE TO SPACE AND THE MOON

4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. On offer is a superb, original relic of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the race to the moon being a personal journal in the form of a filled binder of speeches by NASA executive Jesco von Puttkamer. Dated 1963 through 1972 the binder's contents follow the most storied chapters in human history: the Race to the Moon. The material includes: several dozen note cards on a number of topics including: manned v. unmanned spaceflight, future NASA projects with the shocking in retrospect prediction of a Mars Excursion Module, the space shuttle, a grand tour (of the planets), the Apollo and Skylab schedules, Saturn V statistics, Skylab experiments, Apollo landing sites (including pre-launch Apollo 13 predictions), Mars launch opportunities; handwritten notes regarding Skylab statistics and costs, original NASA data regarding 15th anniversary (written on a NASA routing slip), V2 and Hermes programs through Juno V, cost of Apollo 11 and 12 projects; photocopy of memorandum sent by von Puttkamer, stamped November 19, 1969, detailing the "Unofficial Results of Nov. 18/19, 1969" in the Apollo 12 mission; NASA News, hand-dated August 5, 1969, regarding Background Information on the Apollo Program, with minor annotations; contents on the 1958 Space Act, NASA installations, milestones, manned space flights, Apollo Project flight crews, application programs, and major NASA launches, etc.; photocopy of Sep. 29, 1972 description of multi-spectral scanner photograph of Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River, and glossy print of the associated image; hand-drawn [?] map of the lunar surface, detailing features such as "Maskelyne" craters; report titled "Scientific Results From Apollo 11 and 12", on Marshall Space Flight Center letterhead; NASA News dated January 20, 1972, for release January 25, 1972, regarding the 10th anniversary of the Saturn V program establishment; NASA Space Quotes, Special Events Division document, date stamped October 29, 1969 w/ handwritten annotations, with the text of Richard Nixon's Sep. 18 speech to the United Nations. With the stamp associated with the director of the Aero-Astrodynamics Lab at the Marshall Space Flight Center; Certificate of appreciation issued to von Puttkamer regarding participation in the Composite Engine Program; transcripts of speeches of dignitaries such as Lyndon Johnson, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, Spiro Agnew, members of Congress, etc., regarding space exploration and its importance, several with annotations; "Statement of the President of the United States"; March, 7, 1970, with space exploration content. Hand stamped with the date of March 17, 1970, w/ annotations; "A Trip to the Moon in Project Apollo." Noted as being from the Public Affairs Office, with a date of January, 1969, with some hand annotations; transcript of Apollo 10 Reception aboard Princeton, period copy; Report on Momentum and Space Propulsion, stamped Dec. 8, 1971; several period diagrams of physical laws and rocket/propulsion systems (e.g., nuclear rocket engine, solid-state, arc-jet, ion rocket, plasma rocket), some with annotations; Memorandum dated May 24, 1963 to Dr. Puttkamer from Dynamic Analysis Branch on George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, regarding Environmental Subroutines for GE-225 Computer; letter of thanks, dated November 23, 1971, from Barbara Askins, Physics teacher at Virgil Grissom High School in Huntsville, Alabama, with content regarding the Space Congress; 1964 dated letter on notebook paper (apparently a retained, printed copy), initialed J.v.P., with handwritten annotations, regarding the status of airbreathers in NASA; Memorandum dated September 17/18, 1976 associated with Orbiter Vehicle 101 Roll-Out, regarding the dedication of the associated orbiter vehicle in Rockwell International's Palmdale facility; several pages of relevant research; folder entitled "Future", containing copies of research documents with underlined sections, presumably for potential use in speeches. Contains a document in German entitled "Hubble-Bilder", dated Sept. 1990. Hint of mustiness but overall G. BACKGROUND NOTES: Jesco von Puttkamer, who began his NASA career in 1962, when he worked on Wernher von Braun's rocket team as an engineer at the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., during the Apollo Program, has died, following a brief illness. He was 79. Von Puttkamer most recently worked in the International Space Station Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington as a technical manager. For more than a decade, he authored the ISS Daily Report, which chronicled the lives and activities of the crew members living aboard the International Space Station. He also was instrumental in advancing U.S. and Russian cooperation in human spaceflight. His personal relationships in Russia and the U.S. allowed him to bring both communities together in dialogue and activities. The space station program still is benefiting from his work. Von Puttkamer arranged the translation from Russian to English of the Boris Chertok series "Rockets and People" that chronicled the history of the Russian space program. He also was instrumental in Russian exhibitions of U.S. accomplishments in space, including museum series on von Braun, Apollo 11 and the Hubble Space Telescope. "Jesco was an institution at NASA," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "His time here spanned almost the entire breadth of the agency's human spaceflight programs. He was a direct link from von Braun's efforts to get people off the ground to the International Space Station and 12 years of continuous human presence. We lost an outspoken advocate for NASA's efforts to explore farther than we ever have gone before." Von Puttkamer received numerous awards during his 50 years at NASA. Among those honors was NASA's prestigious Exceptional Service Medal in 2004. In 2007, he received a NASA Honor Award for successful initiatives of advancing American-Russian cooperation in spaceflight. In December 2008, the U.S.-wide German-American Heritage Foundation in Philadelphia honored von Puttkamer with its "Distinguished German-American of the Year" award. For this honor, he received congratulatory letters from President George W. Bush, then-NASA Administrator Michael Griffin and the Governors of the states of Pennsylvania and Virginia. He is the author of more than a dozen books on spaceflight. His novelette, "The Sleeping God," was published in the anthology "Star Trek: The New Voyages 2." His diary/book on the first lunar landing by Apollo 11 was published in Beijing in 1982 in a Chinese translation. A revised edition of this book was published for the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission in July 2009.. Manuscript. Book Condition: Good+

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