posted 06-11-2009 08:01 PM               

According to my correspondence with her, and their official records, a member of Third Church of Christ, Scientist, in Houston, Texas, who was a Monitor advertising representative and a friend of Louise Shepard, wife of the astronaut, asked Alan Shepard if he would be willing to take a microfilm copy of The Christian Science Monitor into space with him. Shepard agreed; in fact, according to the Monitor, he was already committed to taking the front pages of two other newspapers as well.

My correspondence with The Monitor also states that according to their records, they provided Shepard with "a 35mm film can containing a microfilm of the entire first issue, from November 25, 1908, as well as one hundred microfilm copies of the front page of this issue," and they possess several examples of the microfilmed front pages in their archival collection. The 35mm film strip is Kodak film, as I can read it clearly from inside my lucite as well.

Given that Shepard took 100, and they hold "several" copies in their archives -- there are less than 100 of those lucites available to the public. It is a very small population, especially when you consider that probably a few of them did not survive over the years (breakage, disposition, etc.).

I have also researched these on Newspaperarchives.com, and according to press reports at the time, it was suspected that Shepard took the microfilm newspapers to the surface -- the question, from a couple of the editors, was whether or not he left them there or not. While there is certainly a chance they did fly to the surface, given the press reports at the time, that fact can only be established conclusively with more research.

posted 06-12-2009 05:19 AM               

You might want to contact, if still living, aerospace journalist Elaine Stone. She covered most of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo spaceflight missions reporting for Religious News Service and possibly did a piece or two for The Christian Science Monitor.

posted 06-12-2009 07:04 AM               

Yes, Florida Today is, indeed, one of the papers mentioned in the articles that circulated at the time as being taken with Shepard... so it is hard to say that FT was/is the first newspaper taken to the moon, given the CSM sent not only the 100, but also a full copy of the first edition.

If Shepard did leave the copy of FT on the moon -- and as mentioned, some of the quotes in the articles at the time suggest that was their understanding but did not know for sure -- it might seem logical that Shepard would also leave the full issue of the CSM, and bring back the 100 copies. But that is pure speculation on my part at this time.

posted 06-12-2009 10:50 AM               

It was widely confirmed that Shepard took microfilm copies of three newspapers with him: Cocoa Today (rather than Florida Today, my mistake), The Houston Post, and the Christian Science Monitor. Bently, the editor of Cocoa Today, is widely quoted as saying that he had "no doubt" that Shepard was leaving the microfilm on the moon, as the other articles were reporting uncertainty over whether or not he was bringing them back from the moon.

It is also reported that the Post and CSM were also under the impression that the full editions (in the case of the post, just seven historic first pages on microfilm) would be left on the moon - but couldn't confirm.