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[b]Space Cover #497: Apollo 8 50th anniversary[/b] For this week’s Space Cover of the Week I chose to honor the 50th anniversary of Apollo 8 with a couple of favorite Apollo 8 covers from my collection. As we all know, Apollo 8 was launched with the intention to send the first human beings to orbit another world. The launch took place on December 21, 1968 with the lunar orbit happening three days later on Christmas Eve. It has been estimated that one quarter of the people on Earth tuned in to the Christmas Eve broadcast featuring the reading from Genesis. With a successful splashdown in December 27, Apollo 8 paved the way for the coming Apollo flights in 1969 including man’s first landing and footsteps on the moon. Pictured above is a Space Craft cover for the Christmas Eve orbit of the moon. The cover is signed by the crew of Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders. The Borman and Lovell signatures were obtained through the mail in the 70s. For many years during the 80s it was reported that Bill Anders would sign only in person and only one item. In April 1999, I was lucky to meet Bill Anders at what was called the Gathering of Mustangs at the Kissimmee Airport, which was only 2 miles from my apartment. It was a fly-in of over 75 P-51 Mustangs. Chuck Yeager, Bud Anderson, Frank Borman and Bill Anders were to be there. Frank Borman left early due to a family emergency but I got to meet both Yeager and Anderson before they went off flying. I spotted Bill Anders giving an interview in front of his Mustang. After the interview I approached him with two covers and Frank Borman’s book. He looked at them and said "I'll sign one of them. You'd be surprised how often these show up for sale after I sign them." He signed the cover previously signed by Borman and Lovell. I thanked him and promised the cover was for my dad who worked on the Apollo program and would never be for sale. I found out years later that fellow contributor Bob McLeod was also there just a couple of people behind me to meet Anders. The second cover pictured is for the splashdown and recovery of the Apollo 8 crew and command module. It's a #10 envelope postmarked on USS Yorktown on the recovery day but with a very scarce hand cancel. It appears that it was sent by a crew member to himself as a souvenir. This cover was graciously gifted to me a few years ago by David Ball. So what other great covers do you have for this historic mission? Lets see them.
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