hang curtains in a similar fashion during his childhood.) Kinzler also designed the commemorative plaque installed on the Lunar Module for each of the Apollo landing missions. The stainless steel plaque included facsimiles of the signatures of all mission astronauts and of the president of the United States along with a depiction of the Eastern and Western Hemisphere of the Earth. The Apollo 11 plaque included the inscription, "Here men from the Planet Earth first set foot upon the Moon. July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind." Kinzler also helped to fabricate the specially modified six-iron golf club head that Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard attached to the handle of a lunar sampling scoop and used to drive two golf balls on the Moon. Kinzler's technical services division was responsible for a variety of other space program tools and innovations, including the Hand-Held Maneuvering Unit used by Ed White during the Gemini IV mission in the first spacewalk by a U.S. astronaut and the flexible rubber boot between a space capsule and its re-entry heat shield that softened ocean landings. Skylab On May 14, 1973, NASA launched Skylab, the United States' first space station. During the launch, a meteorite shield prematurely deployed, which ripped off the shield and one of the station's solar panels, and the debris prevented another solar panel from fully deploying. Without protection from the solar heat and low on electricity due to the lost and damaged solar panels, the temperature inside the station rose dangerously, threatening to ruin on-board film and food and eventually make the station uninhabitable as overheated plastic components would exude toxic gases. Kinzler sought a solution that did not require a dangerous spacewalk by the Skylab crew. His solution was to develop a parasol-like arrangement that could be deployed through an 8-inch (20 cm) square sally port through the hull of the station at the point of the damage. He built a prototype using four telescoping fiberglass fishing rods and parachute silk. Kinzler's design allowed the device to be pushed through the port from the inside of the station and then deployed by activating springs and telescoping tubes. His model convinced the NASA higher-ups, which ordered the plan put into action. On May 26 the Skylab crew entered the station and deployed the aluminized Inconel parasol, which successfully shielded the station from solar heating, enabling it to maintain a