#space capsule

Reentry

Challengers of the Unknown #3, August-September 1958. Jack Kirby cover pencils, Jack Kirby & Rosalind Kirby (black areas) inks, Ira Schnapp letters.

The G.I. Joe astronaut and Mercury space capsule.

Even though I had the G.I. Adventure Team Headquarters (which I will post about someday), this was the jewel of my G.I. Joe collection. I spent an untold number of hours playing with it.

The astronaut suit was just a variation of the firefighter suit that had been released earlier, but with a space helmet and different accessories. You could purchase the astronaut figure separately, or there was a space suit that was included with the capsule.

The space capsule barely fit one Joe, and wasn't quite to scale to a real Mercury capsule and astronaut. Had it been, I imagine it would've had to be at least twice as big, which would've been too large and expensive.

The capsule had a sliding clear canopy that sealed the cockpit and a neat little control panel. I doubt the panel was in any way accurate, but it was good enough to fool most kids.

I received both the astronaut and the capsule in a trade with one of my cousins. I don't remember what I gave him, but I still feel to this day that I got the better part of the deal.

As I mentioned earlier, this WAS the jewel of my collection.

Then my little brothers got a hold of it. They decided to see if parachutes would deploy when they dropped it from a second storey window.

And that was the end of my space capsule.