122 a
Eugene Cernan

The Angry Alligator above the Earth horizon

Gemini IX-A, June 3-6, 1966, orbit 15, 022:48:00 GET

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso and NASA MSC caption numbered “S-66-37969” on a separate sheet

122 b
Eugene Cernan

EVA photograph; the Sun, the Earth, the Gemini spacecraft and the black sky of space

Gemini IX-A, June 3-6, 1966, orbit 31, 049:24:42 GET

Unreleased photograph, vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-66-38033” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

122 a
Schick and Van Haaften, p. 61; Cortright, p. 173; Thomas, p. 125.

122 b
Schick and Van Haaften, p.62 (variant).

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Lot Essay

122 a
A famous view of the Augmented Target Docking Adapter (ATDA), side view, photographed with the Hasselblad 500C and its 80mm lens from an altitude of about 300 km at a range of 47 feet during the third rendezvous over the Earth.

022:45:11 Capcom (Mission Control): Gemini IX, we’d like for you to conserve as much fuel as you can from here on out and we’ll update you later on the flight time.
022:45:21 Stafford: Okay. We are slowly drifting away from it and after we get squared away and finish our pictures here I won’t use any more fuel. We’ll go ahead and do 3-foot-per-second Retrograde.
022:45:30 Capcom: Roger. Copy.
022:53:57 Capcom: Gemini IX, Houston. Standing by.
022:53:59 Stafford: Roger. We’re getting squared away for our 3-foot-per-second Retrograde Burn. We’ve still got him in sight, exposed a lot of film, and hope to give you a call over Carnarvon or Tananarive.

122 b
Backdropped over the Pacific Ocean illuminated by the Sun, the nose of the Gemini spacecraft is photographed by Cernan, who was performing the second spacewalk in NASA history.
He snapped the picture with the EVA camera, a Super Wide Hasselblad equipped with a 38mm lens, standing in the hatch.
NASA released a variant of this photograph (NASA S-66-38032).

“When you were outside of the spacecraft, all of a sudden the Sun came up over the coast of California and you looked to your right down the Baja Peninsula and the coast of Mexico, and northward up the coast of California and Oregon toward Washington; you had the whole world in front of you to photograph” remembered Eugene Cernan (Schick and Van Haaften, p.62).

049:24:39 Cernan: Boy, is it beautiful out there, Tom!
049:24:40 Stafford: Yes, it sure looks pretty.
049:24:42 Cernan: I’ll grab my Hasselblad and take a picture of that. [...]
049:26:23 Stafford: Well, just stand out there and look at the sunrise, Gene. It looks pretty from here. [...]
049:26:52 Stafford: That sun is bright!