posted 01-12-2024 10:03 PM               

Here is something a little bit different in trying to "expand the envelope" so-to-speak, or in this case, "expand the envelope cover in space!" Or perhaps this space cover idea might be "Way Out There!" You be the judge.

During 1989-92 I was working with a space memorabilia dealer that had an idea of using a flown-in-space zero-G lead pencil for a new product. He was able to acquire a flown to-the-moon Garland pencil from Apollo 15 astronaut-moonwalker Jim Irwin and in using the graphite lead during his lunar voyage. The returned-to-Earth writing utensil with a NASA part and serial number etched on its outside casing, even after 20 years, still actually did write!

He had an intriguing idea, in my opinion, to use that graphite lead in preparing a flown to-the-moon "pencil mark" artifact display as a commercial product. On large and small card formats, and in later years a couple of laminated issued cards, were produced by him placing a small "X" by the flown pencil in the center of a printed open box along with a few printed verification text lines. Please note a couple of the "X" cards below and there are a few other design formats that I have as well.

During that same time frame I was able to acquire a few flown-in-space Garland mechanical pencils and Fisher AG-7 ink pens that had been used and owned by some of the Apollo and Skylab astronauts. Here are a couple of panel displays with an "expanded" pencil and pen ink project of mine. I was thinking to myself, why not see if any of the writing devices that flew in zero gravity can write from their original flown/used cartridges. As it turned out I first ended up with a marker pen from Apollo 12, an Apollo 13 ALSEP pen, a trio of pencil and pens from Skylab, along with a couple of other spaceflight missions.

You might be thinking to yourself, "Okay, but how does this relate to astrophilately?" I took the liberty, as you can see from the panel depictions, to use a selection of appropriate original mission related covers from Apollo 13 and Skylab for such a space cover project. As you can see, the writing instruments were used in writing on the covers themselves a flown-in-space graphite/ink description or certification from the actual utensils that flew in space. Some covers and 8x10" presentations only have a few lines while others may have more sentences or a short paragraph.

At my suggestion to a few of the astronauts that I know and worked with, such as Pete Conrad, Walt Cunningham, Al Worden and Bill Pogue, I wanted to see if any of their space writing pens were still able to be used. Some of them did in fact contain unused lead and ink from their "in-space" pencils and pens. Therefore, I thought it might be a good idea in having those space fliers use any left-over graphite and/or ink for signing some of their autograph requests and for various certifications from those exact same devices. Skylab III (SL-4) astronaut pilot Bill Pogue did this a lot for me by his own hand.

posted 01-13-2024 06:56 AM               

(Don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying I have any doubts about the ones you have presented above. I just think it would be relatively hard to confirm other examples of this 'genre'... especially with shuttle flown pens - they must run into the hundreds).

Edit: and having thought about it some more, I'm less happy with the concept: the average ballpoint pen can write a straight line for ~2 miles, and a graphite pencil nearly twice as long. That's an overabundance of potential 'space flown' material, with a consequent devaluation in the collectability, and an increase in potential fraud.

posted 01-13-2024 04:14 PM               

Is it flown space mail? Yes. Is it highly sought after by collectors? It doesn't appear to be (I would guess many collectors of either space-themed philatelic products or space-flown items have yet to even send in a postcard to be flown, even though it only costs a stamp to do so.)

And yet, of the hundreds of thousands to be flown and returned to their senders, only a few have appeared for sale. It seems many senders/recipients have held onto the postcards as a keepsake (at least for now).

I thought of the original Apollo 15 "X" cards the same way. It wasn't quite something I would buy but it was something I would hold onto if given (and I was given a card with "collectSPACE" written out in the flown graphite, which I do still have).

And when the book I co-authored came out and I did a few book signing events, I used a Fisher Space Pen that flew on the space shuttle to the International Space Station to add a station-shaped hashmark to each book. I included a small slip of paper explaining the hashmark, which also served as a certificate of authenticity.

posted 01-13-2024 05:30 PM               

But let me also remark about authenticity as Alan referred to above. The flown pencil and pen used covers and display certificates include full necessary documentation from either the designated astronaut, space foundation, or auction house when my own signature and written inscription had been added as a L/COA for such an unusual project, which I take very seriously, when my name and reputation are involved.

Next time when posting here (Update: See below) I'll include some astronaut-signed verifications of using their own flown graphite and ink utensils. Most of the astronaut-generated flown pencil and ink inscriptions were applied on non-space cover projects of ours as the covers were not the highest considered priority at those times.

Two of my favorite astronaut-used ink projects were from working with Skylab III (SL-4) pilot Bill Pogue many years ago. Col. Pogue used his Fisher Space Pen with S/N 1269 to hand-write for me on some of his flown heat sensitive teleprinter paper of uplinked SL-4 messages to the crew from mission control in Houston.

Before closing up Skylab in coming back home to earth, Pogue had brought back and kept some of the teleprinter messages from the onboard paper rolls of the orbiting lab-outpost in Feb. 1974. The flown light pink teleprinter at top row reads:

"This is an actual teleprinter message that was uplinked to us aboard the Skylab space station. This heat-sensitive paper was aboard Skylab from May 14, 1973 to Feb. 8, 1974 -- Over 100 million miles (and over 4,300 orbits) in space! This certification is written with a pen from Skylab, thus, this ink had the same space distance and duration as this Skylab pen part # P/N SEB 12100051-208; Serial # S/N 1269. Bill Pogue (signed) SL-4 Pilot, From my personal collection (Do not laminate with heat) and (Do not expose to heat or bright light)."

Another project in working with Pogue was with the certifying letter that can be seen at left with a small blue-white decal sticker of Snoopy from Skylab. The same Fisher Space Pen had been used by Pogue with its below signature and certifying description (also see the last paragraph of the text portion).