 Hey guys, it's Amy and I am sitting on a stool today not standing in the exact same location in my apartment that I always do Which means that we're doing something a little bit different today on vintage space today I'm going to tell you the story of my space tattoo So a lot of you guys have asked about this there are pictures on Instagram and on Twitter and occasionally in a video if I move My arm a certain way you do see a tattoo and a lot of people have been asking what it is and when it got there So I thought I would share with you guys today the story that yes I do indeed have a space tattoo I got it a few months ago, and I am so completely in love with it and obsessed with it So I thought I would talk about it today So as you guys can see it is in fact a gemini regalo wing which anybody who's been following me for any length of time Should know by now that this is like my favorite technology that never came to be Beyond two test tow vehicles that are currently in museums one is in Udvarhazy and one is in a museum in Scotland So I've heard by people sending me pictures on Twitter That's the one I haven't visited yet, but one of these days. So anyways the Gemini regalo wing This is actually from a NASA drawing showing the entire landing sequence of the Gemini regalo wing So a little bit of just background history, and I've got videos more proper education videos about this stuff that I will put Up in the corner right here right now the Gemini regalo wing was NASA's attempt to do away with Splashdown landings in the 1960s right splashdowns are really quite difficult and Costly it was you know the simplest solution to coming back from space was just have the capsule Fall effectively from orbit. I know it's not actually falling, but for all intents and purposes for right now It's falling out of orbit into the large Reel thing target that is the ocean Much simpler design you just need a parachute to slow it down The problem is that then you have to collect it and that means getting the US Navy to be on hand to actually pluck the Astronaut out of the water And that was a huge cost the figure that I always give my favorite one on this is that when Wally Shirov flew his Sigma 7 flight in 1963 there were 27 naval ships on hand to recover him a single man who was an ace pilot had 27 ships I can't remember how many people that is but 27 ships on hand just to pull him out of the ocean when he was done So that was one problem with splashdowns. The other was of course that You know there is the drowning issue As we saw with Gus Christmas Liberty Bell 7 flight when the hatch detonated early and the capsule flooded with water and sank No one wanted to send astronauts into space send them to the moon have them come down Splashdown everything's beautiful and then have them die by drowning. This is not exactly ideal Also, the problem that saltwater is extremely corrosive to metal And this is one of the things that was making it so that capsules couldn't easily be reused none of them were reused in the Apollo era That's a separate video that I'll do properly later on so anyways NASA was really looking for different ways to get away from splashdowns and actually bring some pilot ability into the spacecraft For landing because again the astronauts were all pilots Why not have them land on a runway and actually you know save the spacecraft and be able to refurbish it and reuse it and save The cost of hiring the Navy and put the astronauts lives more in their own control if they you know hit a rough spot They have to change their landing position It's simpler to do when you have some cross capability in a vehicle that can fly so one of the solutions Was the Gemini regala wing so this is basically a two-lobe sail It's a triangular design hanging or sort of well over the Gemini spacecraft the Gemini spacecraft hanging beneath it And it was connected by by cables and by manipulating pulling the cables The pilot could manipulate the center of balance of the mated regala wing Gemini spacecraft And by that start to affect a slow movement and actually land it Theoretically like an aircraft on a runway Ideally being at Edwards Air Force Base where you have the dry lake bed as like a pretty big target So the Gemini regala program ran from that 1961 to 1965 and cost NASA 1.65 million dollars, which is about 2.1 billion dollars as adjusted for inflation and like I said, it's my favorite technology that didn't get anywhere There were two test-toe vehicles that were flown by three pilots two of which ended up in the hospital one of which Jack Swigert ended up leaving at North American Aviation who built the Gemini regala And joined NASA's astronaut corps as we know to fly on Apollo 13 It was NASA really tried to get it into the program They originally every Gemini mission was supposed to land by the paraglider And then as there were technical problems developing it It was okay the first sort of shakedown cruise the first man mission will land by parachute and then Paraglider from there. Okay. Well, it's still delayed So let's do the first five with parachute and then the rest of my paraglider I mean it got to the point where there were people within NASA pushing to add an extra Gemini mission into the program Just to test the paraglider in action and another fun little bit of the story is the Parasev or Paraglider research vehicle program that spun out of this mil Thompson He was an X of team pilot lifting body pilot So many of you guys probably have heard me talk about him within reference to He was fascinated by the regala wing and how it would work And he really wanted to see if he could fly it and see how it would actually handle So he conspired with Neil Armstrong to actually build a test vehicle on their own Using sort of found materials and once the director at the high-speed flight station Paul Bickel I believe it was found out what they were doing said okay fine We'll give you a few thousand dollars to do this just don't die So the vehicle the Parasev is actually in Udvar hazy you can go see it It's like an open tricycle with a paraglider type sail It's much smaller than the one over the test tow vehicle Over top of it and it was designed to give the astronauts a sense of how it would handle So it was it was a program that no one really knows about but a lot of astronauts were actually Involved and just kind of seeing how it would go because the Gemini program was you know The first time astronauts really got involved in kind of helping design things so of you know Gus Grissom was really involved in building Gemini and sort of arranging it such that it was actually called the Gusmobile by some of the astronauts and engineers So it made sense that he would go to Edwards and like try to fly the Parasev to understand how the paraglider Lander would work. So that's the off the top of my head history again I'll have links in the description of like better videos with more actual details about it But I decided that I wanted to get a tattoo. I mean I love tattoos. I should say I've always loved tattoos I love that you can get art on your body that sort of Speaks to exactly who you are and you know everyone you know bad tattoos or bad tattoos, but good tattoos are like the best So I always wanted a space tattoo, but I wanted something that was more unique to me I didn't want to just get like a solar system or Something like I wanted something that was going to be a little bit more like huh That's different because that's more fun for me So I actually originally wanted to do the entire landing sequence of the image that this is from and I inquired with a couple artists about doing it and Turns out that I'm like physically too small to get the entire thing in it was gonna be so small in detail But it was just gonna be impossible And I tried like modifying it and it's just sort of like this is gonna turn into a bit of a mess Because my inner forearm is Or an upper arm rather is just not long enough to get the entire design in So I ended up meeting meeting a woman Zoe at warrant tattoo on a sunset who is I'm literally giving her a shout out because she's phenomenal I mean look at look at how good this is. She's amazing You're in LA. I would highly recommend meeting with her about a design that you're after I took the stand and I showed it to her and she she was like, yeah, that's that's super easy and super cute So we decided to just go with the one And leave space around it. So if I ever want to add anything to it, I have that option But yeah, just a very simple design Very sort of vintage it's vintage drawing. So it's very much my aesthetic and I got it here because I'll leave this awkwardly Rolled up, but when I'm talking on camera and doing a movement like this, you can't totally see it So it's discreet enough that it's it you don't have to it's not in your face for you know, anyone who does does hire me but it is there And something that's really personal to me and the reason I wanted to get that is a tattoo Not just because it's something that I love but again anyone who's followed me for any length of time knows that I wrote my master's thesis on the Gemini regal owing This was like the first failed program at NASA that I really dug into and was like, ooh There's so many stories from NASA history that I want to dig into and Tell the humans not just tell the academic world who already knows they exist That was the first thing that made me like fall in love with a weird history So I wanted to get this tattoo to remind me and to sort of stand as like a thing for me to look at and be like Yep There's a reason that I do like put up with all the weird things that my job entails and work the insane Projects that I do and it's because it's because of this it's because I fell in love with this stupid weird paraglider spacecraft to hybrid and Wanted to tell that story to everybody because it's bonkers and awesome and exciting and weird and fun That sort of was the impetus for everything that's come after it So it made a lot of sense for me to get a tattoo that would be the Gemini regalo and then settling on something That's just very simple very discreet, but vintage it was just it felt like it was just perfect for me So that's that is the space tattoo. That's my Gemini regalo tattoo if you ever see me and want to take a look at it I'm like very happy to show it off because it's it's beautiful She did such a beautiful job that I'm so so happy with it and people have been asking me on Instagram Whether I would ever get another tattoo Sorry mom and dad. I might I'm not I don't have any plans, but you know I might We'll find out so yeah, that's the story of my space tattoo a lot of you guys have been asking for it So that's that's what it is. That's what it looks like. That's the Genesis And I'm really I love it and yeah, I like talking about it because it's kind of awesome So let me know in the comments if you have a space tattoo or want a space tattoo What do you have or want to get and why? Yeah, space tattoos are fun Let's talk about space tattoos and of course if you guys have other random things that you would like me to Talk about leave those in the comments below as well You can follow me for daily vintage space content and daily little bits into my life on Twitter and on Instagram I'm at AST vintage space and of course with new videos going up every single week regular episodes of vintage space and the occasional little Dive into my personal life. Um, be sure to subscribe right here. So you never miss an episode