Until very recently I wasn’t aware that NASA’s Gemini astronauts were issued with switchblades for emergency use, it’s likely that the knives were intended to be used in the result of a crash landing in a forest or jungle rather than the ocean as planned. Soviet cosmonauts from the same era were issued with machetes for much the same reason.
The knife you see here spent 25 hours and 52 minutes in space on the Gemini 6 mission in late 1965, it was made by Camilus of New York and it still bears it original NASA serial numbers and documentation. If you’d like to read more about it or register to bid on it you can click here to visit RR Auction.
Ben Branch has had his work featured on CNN, Popular Mechanics, the official Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with millions of readers around the world and hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
This is a Russian submarine clock that is believed to have been in service during the Cold War, a time when submarines were an utterly vital means of defence, offence, and intelligence gathering for the USA and the Soviet Union, as well as the United Kingdom, France, and to a lesser extent Canada and Australia….
The original Heuer Monza was created in 1976 to celebrate the World Championship win for the Ferrari Formula 1 team a year earlier in 1975 – with legendary drivers Niki Lauda and Clay Regazzoni. Heuer, or Uhrenmanufaktur Heuer AG, wouldn’t become TAG Heuer until 1985 when a majority of the company was purchased by TAG…
The Spidi Rock motorcycle jacket is made from Italian buffalo leather from Vicenza. Buffalo leather has a few advantages over regular bovine leather, perhaps most importantly is its increased thickness and potential for abrasion resistance. Spidi developed the Rock jacket to pass the stringent class AA prEN 17092: 2017 certification, once of the toughest in…
This leather tool roll by Kruk Garage is handmade by craftsmen in Europe using the best materials available, it’ll work equally well for cars and motorcycles, and thanks to its size you should have no trouble finding somewhere to store it. The tool roll has space for up to 18 wrenches and other tools, there’s…
The First Generation Chevrolet K5 Blazer first appeared in 1969 as a competitor to the already established International Harvester Scout and the Ford Bronco, despite its status as the new kid on the block, it was outselling both of its competitors within a year.
The Randolph Aviator Sunglasses (and their almost identical forbear) have been standard issue to all US astronauts and fighter pilots since 1958, officially known as the Flight Goggle 58. The optical manufacturer was established in the small town of Randolph just outside of Boston, Massachusetts and quickly became famous for their almost indestructible frame joints…
