Directly from the Estate of Chuck ♐Friedlander, NASA

A PRESENTATION CONTAINING FABRIC FROM THE FIRST WINDOW CLEAN♛ING IN SPACE 

The typed note enclosed in the presentation reads “To Chuck Friedlander / This nylon tab from first cloth to wipe window during Extra Vehicular Activity. Flown on Gemini XII, November 11-15, 1966.” SಌIGNED BY both JAMES LOVELL and EDWIꦕN “BUZZ” ALDRIN.  

Gemini XII💧 included Buzz Aldrin’s famous spacewalk and a number of colorful activities, not least of which was Aldrin’s wiping of the Agena window to rid it of a mysterious yellow substance. Gemini astronauts noticed the substance accumulating on the hatch windows during earlier flights. NASA had approved Buzz Aldrin's retrieval of this substance with a cloth for testing in the early days of mission training. However, as the launch date approa𒀰ched, it was deemed too dangerous. NASA engineers were worried Aldrin might tear his suit in attempting to wipe the substance off the window.

In Chuck Friedlander's words:

"Buzz was still confident and said, 'Hey, I'm going to do i💞tꦅ anyway. Make the me cloth.'

I to🌺ld him, 'Promise me th💖at you won't do this unless the rest of the EVA has gone perfectly.'

Buzz said, 'I promise.' [...] Sure enough, he wiped the window." (Quest Magazine, Vol 21: 1, pp 27-28.)

Regardless of how NASA officials had felt pre-mission, they were eager to test the cloth and solve the mystery of the yellow substance. Friedlander asked Aldrin about the cloth since it wasn’t listed on the flight plan and th꧑erefore wasn’t automatically shipped to Houston. Aldrin had left it on his bed. Friedlander rushed to Aldrin’s room and the bed was bare, likely cleaned by the housekeepers. He then sprinted to the laundry room and found the cloth just before it was placed in the washer. "’If it had gone through the wash cycle, I can see the lab analysis now— Tide, Ajax, or Rinso’” (Quest p.28).

NASA cut the fabric into small pieces for different laboratories to test the substance, which was discovered to be propellant exhaust from the Titan II launch vehicle. The nylon tab portion of the cloth ꧒had been💞 kept by Buzz Aldrin as a keepsake and presented to Friedlander here.

Chuck Friedlander served as Chief at the NASA Astronaut Support Office, KSC from 1963-1967, leaving shortly after the Apollo 1 tragedy for CBS News where he was Walter Cronkite’s Space Technical Consultant from 1967-1969. Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders invited Friedlander to join him ꦗin Washington as his Executive Assistant when he served as Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council (NASC) at the White House, from 1969-1972. Friedlander also served as Vice President of the Board of Directors for the International Aerospace Hall of Fame, San Diego, CA from 1973-1980. 

LITERATURE

Pealer, Donald D. “An Interview with Charles ‘Chuck’ Friedlander, Former Chief of the Astronaut Support Office, Cape Kennedy.” Quest Vol 21:1, 2014. pp 26-38.