posted 03-14-2021 09:06 PM               

Space Cover #601: Quarantine

Anyone who knows me is aware that my number one collecting interest is First Day Covers for #C76, the 1969 First Man on the Moon stamp designed by my father Paul Calle.

Over the years I have amassed a very large collection of First Day Covers, Event covers and mail all franked with a #C76. My favorite group of covers in this collection are FDC's signed by various astronauts, NASA engineers and employees, scientists, celebrities, sports stars and more.

I would like to share one of my most recent #C76 acquisitions which certainly has an interesting connection to these strange times were are all living in during the current global pandemic.

The new short documentary by Todd Douglas Miller who is the director of the 2019 documentary Apollo 11, has shed renewed light on the quarantine of the Apollo 11 crew upon their return to Earth.

Apollo 11: Quarantine, tells the story of the 21 day isolation of the Apollo 11 crew of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins. After the Moon landing and return, Scientists were not completely certain that the crew had not brought back anything from the Moon that could be potentially harmful to human beings.

The three astronauts were housed in a converted Airstream trailer called the Mobile Quarantine Facility. The MQF was on the USS Hornet when the astronauts splashed down in the Pacific and upon reaching port was flown to Houston.

The Lunar Receiving laboratory at Johnson Space Center was their home for the remainder of the 21 day quarantine.

I have #C76 First Day Covers signed by the recovery teams, ship captains, helicopter pilots, the pilots that flew the crew and the MQF to Houston, etc., etc., but this cover is special...

Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins were not alone in the Airstream trailer. NASA flight surgeon Dr. William Carpentier accompanied the astronauts on the helicopter to the USS Hornet and entered the MQF with them.

Joining the foursome was NASA engineer John Hirasaki. Among his other duties Hirasaki was in charge of the lunar samples, film canisters, etc and removing equipment from and the decontamination of the Apollo 11 spacecraft Columbia.

This #C76 is signed by NASA engineer John Hirasaki, one of the first five human beings to view the lunar samples returned from the Moon.

In his 1974 autobiography, Carrying the Fire, Michael Collins described Hirasaki as "quiet, flexible, unobtrusive" and said that both he and William Carpentier were "good choices" to join the astronauts in the MQF.

As a part of the NASA Oral History project John Hirasaki was interviewed.