The Right Buck. (Somewhat OT, Large pics).

[SkyMan]

As many of you know there was an auction recently of US space program items that interested me. Given a Ph.D. in satellite imagery and a screen name of SkyMan you might just get the idea that I'm a serious space junkie. While the main item in the auction that interested me, the Lunar Module (LM) "Log" from Apollo 11 (the First Moon landing) was beyond my financial resources, there were 5 items that I ended up winning. The following images are in reverse chronological order (so that the title item of this thread will be saved for last). The first item is a gift from the crew of Apollo 13 to a NASA person. It is self explanatory by it's text, but having ANY piece from the Apollo 13 LM is EXCEEDINGLY rare. Apollo 13 is the flight where the astronauts had to use the LM as a "lifeboat" to return them to the Earth after the Command/Service Module suffered an explosion.

 

The second item is an envelope signed by the crew of Apollo 11 (pre-lift off) and date stamped July 20, 1969, the day Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the Moon (this item is the sole item I bought that was NOT flown). The 3rd and 4th items are not pictured, but were flown on Apollo 11. The 3rd item is an American silk flag, 9" x 6" on a presentation document. The 4th item, by far the most expensive item that I won, was a page of the "Log" of Apollo 11 signed by Buzz Aldrin. It covers the events of hours 82-4 of the flight (preparing the LM preliminary to landing on the Moon).

 

Finally, if you've seen the movie, "The Right Stuff", you'll know that the astronaut Gordon ("Gordo") Cooper was one of the main characters. He flew on the last Mercury flight, "Faith 7". Here is a silver certificate that he took with him on his flight. I am not sure what the WP symbol on the reverse stands for, but somebody suggested West Point which sounds reasonable. If you have any idea what it stands for please let me know.

 

 

 

 

[bsshog40]

That's pretty neat Sy when your other interests besides coins gets you memorabilia that's also numismatic related. Pretty cool!!!!

[Mirrored Morgan]

What a great way to collect history on these two historical missions. The Peace Dollar that they took up with them on the Apollo 11 mission went for over $20,000 as I recall reading in CW. Very nice Skyman.

[TomB]

I'm of the age that I was just entering grade school as the Apollo missions went to the moon and my dream at that age was to go there someday, too. To me, this is some very cool stuff. (thumbs u

[jesbroken]

Very neat memorabilia, Sy. I fooled with your WP and with a little imagination and from an astronaut's point of view as the image shows. It might be PW instead of WP and Gordo may have been looking from his own perspective and saw PM for Project Mercury. I guess if one thought long enough anything is possible. Regardless, great newp!!!! Love that $.(thumbs u

 

[rbrown4]

Very interesting items Sy, congratulations on acquiring them and thanks for showing us.

 

Rey

[SkyMan]

Glad you like 'em guys!

 

MM, the Peace dollar Aldrin carried with him went for over $30,000. Here is the link to it.

 

Aldrin's Apollo 11 1923-S Peace $1

 

My Faith 7 dollar cost (including tax) ~$4,200.

 

Jim, thank you for playing around with the PW/WP. Fun stuff! As mentioned I have no clue as to what it stands for.

[MikeInFL]

That is super-cool!

[physics-fan3.14]

My senior year of college Fred Haise (Apollo 13 astronaut) came and spoke at my school. I was lucky enough to get to have lunch with him (there were ~15 of us that had lunch with him). I was also able to get his autograph, which he is usually reluctant to give out.

[rrantique]

Great stuff Sy, congrats. (thumbs u

[robec1347]

Sy, as I told you before, that is so cool to have something like this. Not many of us have a chance to own something with this historical significance. This is the type of stuff that you would expect to see in the Smithsonian or at least and exhibit. Very cool indeed and thanks for sharing.

[Bruceswar]

This is very cool. Congrats on owning it.