IBM / Skylab Manned Flight Awareness Medallion, Original Presentation Punch Card

Description

Skylab Manned Flight Awareness Medallion and Original IBM Presentation Punch Card
Items are circa 1970's
Also included is an original explanation of this Medallion and Punch Card, with a Schematic Diagram of “The Instrument Unit” manufactured by IBM Federal Systems Division (FSD) for NASA.
The name on the Presentation Card W.S. Ramminger, was the plant manager of IBM Space Systems Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
Both items are is Excellent used condition
Please see all attached pictures
Shipping includes a Tracking Number
Skylab Manned Flight Awareness Medallion
Year issued:
1970
Mint:
[unknown]
No. Minted:
100,000
Flown metal:
16mm film canister
"This medallion contains metal that traveled through space on the world's first space station -- the U.S. Skylab -- on which astronauts Conrad, Kerwin, Weitz, Bean, Garriott, Lousma, Carr, Gibson and Pogue opened a new era in the uses of space"
Perhaps the earliest icon of the Information Age was a simple punched card produced by IBM
, commonly known as the “IBM card.” Measuring just 7- 3/8 inches by 3- 1/4 inches, the piece of smooth stock paper was unassuming, to be sure. But taken collectively, the IBM card held nearly all of the world’s known information for just under half a century—an impressive feat even by today’s measures. It rose to popularity during the Great Depression and quickly became a ubiquitous installment in the worlds of data processing and popular culture. What’s more, the punched card provided such a significant profit stream that it was instrumental to IBM’s rapid growth in the mid-twentieth century.
IBM Federal Systems Division (FSD)
A significant part of IBM's operations were
FSD
's contracts with the U.S. Federal Government for a wide range of projects ranging from the
Department of Defense
to the
National Security Agency
. These projects spanned mundane administrative processing to top-secret supercomputing. In
NASA
's
Apollo Program
, the "brains" of each
Saturn rocket
was the
Instrument Unit
built by the IBM Space Systems Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1957, FSD was sold to
Loral
in 1994.
The Saturn V instrument unit
is a ring-shaped structure fitted to the top of the
Saturn V
rocket's third stage (
S-IVB
) and the
Saturn IB
's second stage (also an S-IVB). It was immediately below the SLA (Spacecraft/Lunar Module Adapter) panels that contained the
Apollo Lunar Module
. The instrument unit contains the guidance system for the Saturn V rocket. Some of the electronics contained within the instrument unit are a
digital computer
, analog flight control computer, emergency detection system, inertial guidance platform, control accelerometers, and control rate gyros. The instrument unit (IU) for Saturn V was designed by NASA at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and was developed from the Saturn I IU. NASA's contractor to manufacture the Saturn V Instrument Unit was International Business Machines (
IBM
).
Saturn launch history
Program
Launch Vehicle
Mission
Launch date
Pad
IU version
Saturn V
SA-513
Skylab 1
14 May 1973
39A
3
Saturn IB
SA-206
Skylab 2
25 May 1973
39B
3
Saturn IB
SA-207
Skylab 3
28 Jul 1973
39B
3
Saturn IB
SA-208
Skylab 4
16 Nov 1973
39B
3