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< Template:POTD | 2020-03-23
NASA space-flown Gemini medallions were mission-specific commemorative medallions which were approved by NASA and carried aboard the mission spacecraft into orbit. Gemini 3 was the first crewed mission in the Gemini program. On March 23, 1965, astronauts Gus Grissom and John Young flew three low Earth orbits in their spacecraft, which they nicknamed Molly Brown, in a playful reference to the Broadway musical The Unsinkable Molly Brown; the mission was successful, and the capsule did not sink at splashdown as had happened in Grissom's previous space flight, in the Mercury program.
Fliteline medallions were made for each of the crewed Gemini flights, being prepared for the astronauts at their request. It is unclear who prepared these early medallions, only that each individual box containing a medallion bore the word "Fliteline".Photograph credit: Heritage Auctions; commissioned by the NASA astronaut office