Spaceflight leaves no room for excess. On missions like the Apollo 9 mission, every ounce was accounted for, every object scrutinized.

And yet, astronauts were permitted a small exception in the form of a Personal Preference Kit (PPK)—a limited set of personal items they could bring with them into orbit. These tokens were chosen not for utility, but for meaning. Flags, pins, medallions, and notes (among a myriad of other miscellany like tree seeds) were carried into orbit with intention, often meant to be shared, gifted, or preserved as part of the mission’s legacy.

Therefore, a flown item is defined not just by where it has been, but by the fact that it was chosen to go at all.

 

Apollo 9 astronauts James A. McDivitt, left, David R. Scott, and Russell L. Schweickart pose in front of the Apollo 8 Saturn V during its terminal countdown demonstration test at Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Photo Credit: NASA

What Rusty Schweickart chose to carry aboard the Apollo 9 mission reflects both the magnitude of the Apollo mission and his personal mindset as a key actor in it.

Some items spoke to shared identity. Flags from the United States, Texas, the Netherlands, and a miniature Declaration of Independence connected the mission to place, partnership, and national purpose. Pins, coins, and patches—small symbols of a much greater effort—marked the program itself. Others carried a more personal layer of meaning. A United Nations flag reflected a broader view of the mission. As Schweickart put it, “For me, we were representing humanity going into space.”

Along with flags, pins, and personal items, Rusty Schweickart brought the Apollo 9 Mission patch into orbit with him. The patch depicts the Lunar Module orbiting near the Command Module, symbolizing the first piloted flight of the spacecraft that would take humans to the lunar surface. Credit: NASA / RMP Archive

 

And then there were the items chosen for personal reflection. These included Rusty’s own mixtape of classical music. Apollo 9 was the first mission where astronauts were permitted to bring personal music into space, played on a portable cassette recorder intended for voice notes. Rusty selected Hodie, a cantata by Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Alan Hovhaness’s Mysterious Mountain symphony.

Famously, the tape went missing for much of the flight; whether by accident or at the hands of crewmates Dave Scott and Jim McDivitt, who were known to prefer country music, remains lost to history.

He also brought a set of handwritten quotes he described as “pretty impressive in terms of human wisdom”—including words from John F. Kennedy, the Bible, and even excerpts from the poem “How do I love thee?” from Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Some of these notecards were carried in his pocket during his historic EVA.

 

Before flying, Rusty had many of his favorite quotes printed on parchment. He carried them with him on the Apollo Mission, even stowing some in his pocket during his EVA.

None of these items was required for the mission. In a spacecraft engineered down to the ounce, they were among the few things carried for meaning alone. Together, they offer a rare glimpse into what was worth bringing: symbols of identity, gestures of diplomacy, and personal sources of reflection carried into an environment defined by precision and risk.

Over time, they have come to represent more than a single flight. Preserved for decades in Rusty Schweickart’s private collection, they now enter a new phase, offering a tangible connection to a perspective that continues to shape how we understand our place beyond Earth.

This blog post is part of a series highlighting items from Rusty Schweickart’s personal collection to be auctioned in June 2026. To learn more about the auction, click here or join the exclusive auction mailing list.

 

---

 

Annalise Schweickart, Ph.D.

Annalise Schweickart is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, using AI and computational methods to explore human longevity. She holds a Ph.D. in biological data science, specializing in metabolomic models for complex metabolic disease. Her commitment to protecting life on Earth runs in the family. As a granddaughter of Apollo 9 astronaut and co-founder of B612, Rusty Schweickart, Annalise carries that legacy forward through the Schweickart Prize, an annual award recognizing the next generation of graduate student leaders in planetary defense.