Presented here are "puck" style heatshield presentations for the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab missions that were presented after each mission by NASA to key employees, astronauts, and somewhat less frequently to support personnel or contractors.

For Mercury and Gemini missions two types have been identified based on the style of engraving used, "TYPE A" and "TYPE B". Both types as identified in the tables below were in use starting with presentations in 1961 and up through Gemini VII in 1965. Starting with Gemini VIII in 1966, "TYPE B" is observed to be the only style in use.

For Apollo and Skylab missions only "TYPE B" style engraving was used for the "puck" heatshield presentations. The tradition of encasing complete plugs, instead of smaller sections thereof, began with Apollo 11 and carried through the remainder of the program. All complete plugs seen up to this point from Apollo 7, 8, 9 and 10 have not been encased. For these missions, typically a circular section of heatshield was removed and either fully encased or cut into pie-shaped slices then encased.

Due to the significance of Apollo 11, in addition to aft heatshield plugs, some of the smaller (more finely threaded) heatshield plugs from the forward crew compartment heatshield access panels were also encased and presented. These plugs exsist from other Apollo missions but were in most cases not professionally encased and presented by NASA in the same manner as Apollo 11. The majority of panel plug acrylics are "homemade" and were created by recovery teams or engineers at North American Avation/Rockwell, the supplier of the Command Module.

The size of engraving varied between presentations depending primarily on the size of heatshield sample and the resulting puck diameter. Click image below to enlarge.

Size	Abbreviation	Character Height
Small	S	3mm
Medium	M	4mm
Large	L	5mm
Extra Large	XL	6mm
Double Extra Large	XXL	7mm

The most distingushing characteristic for these puck presentations is their use of a specalized acrylic material, sometimes referred to by its trade name Lucite. The embedment process required carefully controlled temperature and pressure to produce a perfectly crystal clear presentation without air bubbles and provided resistence to yellowing over time. If made using this process, they will remain as clear as the day they were made.

In contrast, room-temperature hand-poured acrylics, sometimes referred to as "homemade", have a tendency to yellow over time when exposed to ambient temperature extremes and sunlight. Since the acrylic resin is poured in several steps and allowed to set, it is possible for small air bubbles to form around the object and between the layers. When viewed from an angle, it is common to see distinct yet somewhat wavy lines inside the presentation. If the acrylic is not yellowed, the presence of pour lines is the easiest way to determine that it is "homemade".

Based on surviving documentation and a few original boxes, it is known that presentations for Gemini and Apollo mission were created for NASA by Clearfloat using the specalized process described above. Examples of original boxes are shown below alongside their corresponding presentations. It is possible that Clearfloat was involved with the earlier Mercury presentations based on the many similarities presently observed, yet it is not known for certain at this time.