Smithsonian inspects first US astronaut's space capsule, suit 60 years on C.J. Heckelmoser with NASA (left rear); H.H. Packer (left front) and T.L. Bartlett (right rear), both of General Dynamics; and Air Force Staff Sergeant C.R. Rohrs lowers a 500-year time capsule holding records and mementos of the first U.S. human space program into the base of the Project Mercury Monument at Launch Complex-14 in Cape Canaveral, Florida in 1964. (Image credit: General Dynamics) "Wood, pulp, paper materials, films and photographic prints are all inherently unstable pieces that I guarantee, even if they did a nitrogen swab and sealed it so that Godzilla himself couldn't pry it open, the materials inside will eat themselves up over the course of 500 years," he said. The items placed inside the time capsule were first sealed within "special plastic containers," according to documents from General Dynamics, the company that organized and underwrote the creation of the monument. Twenty-six still photos showing highlights from the Mercury program were "specially prepared" following the advice of the Eastman Kodak Company and the American Standards Association. Other contents included (skip ahead now if you want to be surprised in 440 years): Proceedings of the Mercury-Atlas Booster Reliability Workshop conducted in San Diego, California on July 12 1963; The results of the first, second and third crewed orbital spaceflights, as well an overview of the entire Mercury project, including the fourth orbital flight; James Grimwood's "Project Mercury: A Chronology," published in 1963; Proceedings from a 1960 review of the space program held before the Committee on Science and Astronautics in the House of Representatives; a report on Project Mercury prepared by the same committee in 1961; and a 1962 report to the U.S. Congress on the status of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs; A hardcover copy of "We Seven: By the Astronauts Themselves," published by Simon & Schuster in 1962; "Aeronautics: Past and Future" by J.R. Dempsey, president of General Dynamics and a collection of prophecies by "distinguished Americans of man's employment in space in 2063 A.D." as compiled for the fifth anniversary of the dedication of the General Dynamics/Astronautics facility in San Diego in 1963; One deck of General Dynamics "space cards;" "Friendship 7," an hour-long color film about John Glenn's Mercury-Atlas 6 orbital spaceflight and voice countdown excerpts from each of the Mercury missions; A 1:65th scale desktop model of a Mercury-Atlas launch vehicle. Archive photo showing some or all of the contents of the 500-year time capsule encased in the base of the Project Mercury monument including photographs and films, publications and a scale model of a Mercury-Atlas rocket. (Image credit: Cape Canaveral Space Force Museum) Other examples of each of those items exist outside of the time capsule as well, with many, if not all of the photos, films and documents having been scanned and archived online. One irreplaceable artifact, though, is rumored, but not confirmed, to also be inside. "According to a document in the UCF [University of Central Florida] archives, 'contents of the time capsule are said to include John Glenn's Marine Corps pilot wings...,' Draper told collectSPACE. "I have looked at a whole bunch of other sources trying to confirm that, and so far I have been unable to do so. So who knows? It could be in there. It could also be in hands of the family or tucked away in a museum."