posted 12-12-2023 02:00 PM               

Space Cover 731: MOL and its Pilots

The Manned Orbiting Laboratory (MOL) was part of the United States Air Force (USAF) human spaceflight program in the 1960s. The project was developed from early USAF concepts of crewed space stations as reconnaissance satellites and was a successor to the canceled Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar military reconnaissance space plane. Plans for the MOL evolved into a single-use laboratory, for which crews would be launched on 30-day missions and return to Earth using a Gemini B spacecraft derived from NASA's Gemini spacecraft and launched with the laboratory.

For the space hardware – the MOL program got so far as an actual unmanned test launch on November 3, 1966, aboard a Titan IIIC rocket, the spacecraft completed a suborbital trajectory, successfully testing the circular hatch cut into the heat shield, which was to be the configuration to be used in the MOL program so that the military astronauts could transfer to the attached laboratory module. The capsule splashed down in the South Atlantic Ocean near Ascension Island and was recovered by the USS La Salle. Along with the USS La Salle, two secondary recovery ships – the USS Aucilla and USS Fort Snelling – comprised the recovery fleet.

Covers were created for the launch by the main cachet makers of the time – such as Orbit (scanned above), Sarzin, and Space Craft Covers. Covers exist for all the recovery ships but they are hard to find with, interestingly for number of covers I have seen, the USS La Salle being harder to find than the secondary ships. USS Fort Snelling covers typically have a hard to read date in the postmark due to over inking. There are also return to port covers for the USS La Salle (Orbit PrtC and Boudwin RSC).

Beware – Charles Riser sold multiple suspect USS La Salle recovery date covers with different cachets and some with suspect autographs.

The MOL program was announced to the public on December 10, 1963, as an inhabited platform to demonstrate the utility of putting people in space for military missions; its reconnaissance satellite mission was a secret project.

To provide prospective astronauts for the X-15 rocket-powered aircraft, Dyna-Soar and MOL programs, on June 5, 1961, the USAF created the Aerospace Research Pilot Course at the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base. The school was renamed the Aerospace Research Pilot School (ARPS) on October 12, 1961. with the third class receiving instruction on Dyna-Soar as part of the course. The commandant of the ARPS, Colonel Chuck Yeager, advised the selection of astronauts for MOL be restricted to ARPS graduates thus the MOL program did not accept applications for astronauts.

A selection board was convened in September 1965, chaired by Major General Jerry Page. On September 15, 1965, the selection criteria for MOL was announced. Candidates had to be:

• Qualified military pilots;
  
• Graduates of the ARPS;
  
• Serving officers, recommended by their commanding officers; and
  
• Holding U.S. citizenship from birth.

In October 1965, the MOL Policy Committee decided that MOL crew members would be designated "MOL Aerospace Research Pilots" rather than astronauts. However, most people still referred to them as "astronauts" while some refences have them as "MOL Flight Crew Members" and other times simply as "MOL Pilots."

The names of the first group of eight MOL pilots were announced on November 12, 1965, as a Friday night news dump to avoid press attention.

• Major Michael J. Adams, USAF
  
• Major Albert H. Crews Jr., USAF
  
• Lieutenant John L. Finley, USN
  
• Captain Richard E. Lawyer, USAF
  
• Captain Lachlan Macleay, USAF
  
• Captain Francis G. Neubeck, USAF
  
• Major James M. Taylor, USAF
  
• Lieutenant Richard H. Truly, USN

In late 1965, the USAF began selecting a second group of MOL pilots. Five were selected, and their names were publicly announced on June 17, 1966:

• Captain Karol J. Bobko, USAF
  
• Lieutenant Robert L. Crippen, USN
  
• Captain C. Gordon Fullerton, USAF
  
• Captain Henry W. Hartsfield Jr., USAF
  
• Captain Robert F. Overmyer, USMC

The MOL Astronaut Selection Board met again on May 11, 1967, and the MOL Program Office announced names of those selected for the third group of MOL astronauts on June 30, 1967:

• Major James A. Abrahamson, USAF
  
• Lieutenant Colonel Robert T. Herres, USAF
  
• Major Robert H. Lawrence Jr., USAF
  
• Major Donald H. Peterson, USAF

With growing pressure from the expansion of the Vietnam War, the perceived duplication of effort with NASA programs, and improved performance of operating unmanned surveillance systems, in June 1969 the President cancelled the MOL program. With that, many of the MOL Pilots moved to NASA's astronaut program.

Previous SCOW posts have talked of the difficulty of obtaining the signatures of various groups of test pilots and astronauts – X-15, moonwalkers, Mercury-Gemini-Apollo, Manned Spaceflight Engineers, etc.

This group of 17 astronauts is extremely difficult, if not impossible to complete, due to the secrecy of the program, how short a time it actually existed with MOL Pilots, and three of the MOL pilots killed in crashes – Mike Adams (X-15 and MOL) in X-15 crash in November 1967, Robert Lawrence in F-104 crash at Edwards AFB in December 1967, and James Taylor in T-38 crash at Palmdale Regional Airport in September 1970.

The cover shown has the autographs of Robert Herres, Karol Bobko, Richard Truly and James Abrahamson. I have fortunately also seen John Finley and Greg Neubeck from bobslittlebro's collection.

The X-20 astronauts are another tough group to complete but that's for another time...

posted 12-13-2023 06:05 AM               

Aged seven, I was absolutely spell-bound, and the final four plates illustrating man's future landings on the moon, Mars, Mercury and Saturn's moons was revelatory. I wondered if I'd ever see it happen in my lifetime.

What's this got to do with MOL, I hear you ask?

Well, some five years later I was given pocket money and it was enough to buy one Marvel comic a week with a little extra. I put all the extras into a pile until I had enough to buy a book (my first being a paperback of Isaac Asimov's "The Rest of The Robots" — which I still have!). And then I pulled a book off my local library's shelf: Kenneth Gatland's "Manned SpaceCraft." I absolutely adored the cut-away illustrations of the rockets and technical drawings of the spacecraft. I had to own it, so I spent weeks saving up all of my pocket money and forgoing my Marvel comics in order to purchase my first hardback (and second only book I'd personally bought).

This was in 1967 and Apollo had not yet gotten off the ground, and on pages 37-39 were drawings and photographs of MOL — which had flown.

I spent hours and hours trying to recreate cut-away drawings of V-2s and Saturn 5s and became fairly technically proficient, which in turn led me to study the details and differences between craft...

Which brings us around to space covers...

My modest collection only incorporates two MOL covers, and non are signed by the pilots.

I have the Orbit cover, which depicts a rather unrealistically proportioned Titan-III (although I do admire the schematic of the various satellites being launched).

posted 12-13-2023 06:13 PM               

Mike Adams was also selected for MOL on Nov. 12, 1965, but moved to the X-15 program on July 14, 1966. So Adams' time on MOL was only about 8 months long and preceded the MOL unmanned test launch shown above. So the odds of an Adams signed MOL cover existing are about nil. And as most of you already know, Adams died in an X-15 crash on November 15, 1967, making his X-15 career only about 16 months long. There are very few Adams signed X-15 covers out there. Here is one:

posted 12-14-2023 04:02 PM               

Myself, Tim Preston and his late brother, Bob, among others, were involved in contacting the MOL astronauts thru the mail in the 1980's and '90's. Addresses for most were known and most were cooperative about signing.

Lacking the real possibility of finding MOL astronauts autographs on MOL covers, the next best thing was to have them sign appropriate test aircraft covers and ask them to add that they were a MOL astronaut, as is shown by the two covers here (John L. Finley and Richard Lawyer).

The seven easiest of the 17 MOL astronauts to find an autograph for are the seven NASA Group 7 Astronauts, who have signed countless covers through the years as Shuttle astronauts.

Having a Mike Adams autograph, this collector ended up with autographs of 15 of the 17 MOL astronauts, but with no likelihood of the set being completed because of the extreme rarity of James Taylor's autograph and the great scarcity of Robert Lawrence's. In years past Lawrence's autograph would be offered occasionally on dealer's lists (wish I had bought one).

posted 12-14-2023 05:07 PM               

Of the 17 Project MOL pilot-astronauts, I had them all on some covers, photos, and letters except for Crews and Taylor. Lawrence I had on a Titan 3/MOL Space Craft Cover with a Adams signed NASA b/w glossy of him standing near his X-15 rocket plane, but not MOL related.

posted 12-14-2023 07:13 PM               

Here is a Centennial Cover for Project MOL:

posted 12-15-2023 06:23 AM               

I also know of covers (not featured here) by Sokalsky and Riser NASA "La Salle" covers: the Sokalsky has a thermographic image in red of a generic, very thin rocket and Atlas-type launching gantry; the Riser fakes are La Salle splashdown covers with a large blue NASA logo RSC.

posted 12-15-2023 11:19 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Axman:
...the Riser fakes are La Salle splashdown covers with a large blue NASA logo RSC.

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Also note that the Robert Lawrence "autograph" is also suspect as Riser added many suspect signatures to his covers to add to their "authenticity." Bob - don't be adding one of these to your collection!

Note also that a tell-tale hallmark of Riser suspect covers is the use of US Post Office postal stationary but the bottom cover uses traditional stamps.

posted 12-15-2023 01:52 PM               

It’s postmarked on August 26, 1965, the day that President Johnson approved the funding bill that included MOL (n.b. – he didn’t “order” the military to construct MOL as stated on the cachet, he approved the funding). Sarzin did the cachet and had the cover postmarked at Port Washington, NY, the post office in the city where he lived. This event likely took Sarzin by surprise, and he didn’t have covers ready to be serviced at more appropriate locations like Washington, DC or the Cape. He’s done a number of space covers with Port Washington postmarks.

Oh, and just to expound a bit on the Al Crews autographed SCC cover farther up the thread. This is one of those collectors-helping-other-collectors stories that make this hobby so much fun:

posted 12-15-2023 04:24 PM               

Please, feel free to comment cachetmaker and any information you think of interest. Thanks.

posted 12-15-2023 04:30 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by micropooz:
I did pay enough attention to know that Al Crews’ autograph was literally impossible to obtain through the mail (he just didn’t respond at all).

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His address was given and fortunately I had two military aviation covers handy (F-15 and B-1 bomber) and sent them to him with comments that I collected military pilots' autographs (I don't) and asked him to add something about his aviation career.

The results were exceptional and better than I could have asked for, with him listing both "MOL" and "X-20" in his inscriptions.

posted 12-15-2023 09:50 PM               

I do have covers from all three recovery vessels. Pictured are the secondary recovery ships USS Aucilla and USS Fort Snelling. The USS Aucilla cover is the popular Orbit Covers printed cachet. These also exist for the return to port date. The USS Fort Snelling cover has the standard cachet that is mostly seen for this particular event.

Both of these covers were obtained from the estate of Richard L. Learn. Dick was a fellow space collector and a good friend of mine. I was offered his collection after he passed away about 22 years ago.

I also have a USS LaSalle cover with a cachet that I believe was done by Don Schultz. This cover is with my dad's space covers and not here with me. Unfortunately since he passed away I am unable to get scans of any of his covers.

quote:

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Originally posted by yeknom-ecaps:
This group of 17 astronauts is extremely difficult...

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I did get many of them through the mail in the 80's and 90's. The seven NASA guys were of course the easiest to check off as my dad had already gotten them through the mail. Abrahamson, Herres, Lawyer and Neubeck I received myself through the mail. I asked them to sign covers commemorating the first launch of the Titan-3C with the Space Craft Covers cachet. I thought this appropriate as the MOL program would utilize the Titan-3C booster as its launch vehicle. Crews, Finley and Macleay I purchased. These were on random Edwards AFB covers.

As for the three tough ones, I have Adams and Taylor on blank stuffer cards. I also have the envelope Mike Adams mailed the signed stuffer card back to the person who requested the autograph. Adams actually printed his return address on the envelope. Lawrence is the strangest one. He signed a Ghandi stamp first day cover. I don't know why this was chosen for the signature but I had two of them. These were all part of the holdings from Space Craft Covers which my dad and I purchased from Joe Fitzpatrick's widow in 1988. I sold the second Lawrence autograph many years ago. Again, all these reside with my dad's collection in New Jersey. Someday I will get everything down here in Florida with me and I will post scans of them.

posted 12-15-2023 10:55 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Eddie Bizub:
Evans was one of the alternate pilots selected for MOL.

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The Air Force Space & Missile Museum press release [October 31, 2016] about the 50th anniversary of MOL only mentioned 'Media are invited to attend the event and speak with retired Air Force Col. Albert “Al” Crews, who was selected as a member of the MOL program’s first astronaut group in 1965, and retired Air Force Maj. Norvin “Bud” Evans, who was responsible for designing the interior of the MOL and served as a key developer of MOL astronaut training.' and nothing about Evans being an alternate MOL Pilot.

From his obituary in 2020. "He was Commander of Flight Test Operations at Wright Patterson AFB when he retired to join General Electric’s Manned Orbiting Laboratory program."

Would be interested if you know where Al got that designation from. Unfortunately, Al passed away before I heard back from him about that question.

Maybe because he did all the same things the MOL Pilots would have to do as he developed the MOL training for GE?

And, for the record, Bud Evans was also an advisor for the X-20 program.

quote:

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Originally posted by Eddie Bizub:
I am certainly lucky enough to say that I have the autographs of all 17 MOL pilots. ... As for the three tough ones, I have Adams and Taylor on blank stuffer cards.

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posted 12-16-2023 06:57 AM               

The cachet for the budget allocation cover is the same illustration turned through 90 degrees that he (Sarzin) used later on his launch cover.

I instantly recognized the top cover of yours Antoni, which incongruously depicts a Saturn V emerging from the VAB, but it took me a while searching through my collection to find it. Mine is almost identical to yours with the same cachet, same stamp, and same address label, but mine is for the Gemini 12 ATV, cancelled at Patrick Air Force Base on 11th November 1966, and has a rubber stamp text Atlas-Agena replacing your MOL Titan 3.

Of course, the Apollo programme was well under way in November 1966, but it's still a little mysterious as to why a cover supplier would use a Saturn V cachet on MOL and Gemini missions. I have no idea who the cachet maker is, and have never seen any other examples on other launch covers.

posted 12-16-2023 07:59 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
...reminds me more of a one-color printed Astro Covers cachet

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posted 12-16-2023 12:03 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Axman:
I instantly recognized the top cover of yours Antoni, which incongruously depicts a Saturn V emerging from the VAB...

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
That bottom cover entry by Antoni reminds me more of an one-color printed Astro Covers cachet design, but I don't see the logo by Astro Covers near the cachet.

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