[Apollo 14] Stu Roosa's Astronaut Survival Kit

From the personal collection of Rosemary Roosa, daughter of Apollo 14 CMP Stu Roosa

ARTIFACTS FROM APOLLO ASTRONAUT SURVIVAL TRAINING

While NASA missions were planned to end with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean rather than on land, Apollo astronauts were trained on how to survive and navigate jungle terrain in case they landed off-course on their return from space. The present lot includes materials astronauts trained with as well as photographs of this Panama jungle survival school taken in June 1967. The astronauts spent three days in Panama learning how to survive in the jungle, divided into three-man crews and only provided with the materials included in the onboard survival kit..

This kit belonged to Apollo 14 Command Module Pilot Stuart "Stu" Roosa, who was no stranger to wilderness survival due to his training as a smokejumper in the United States Forest Service. Smokejumpers are firefighters trained to jump from airplanes to extinguish isolated forest fires. Roosa jumped in crews putting out fires in Oregon and California in the summer of 1953. This experience proved to be an asset to Roosa in his illustrious career as a pilot and later as an Apollo astronaut.

The present lot offers an exciting and insightful look at how Apollo astronauts trained for landing off-course, as well as an encapsulation of how much courage, effort, and perserverance went into preparing for this bold new chapter in human space exploration.