posted 10-14-2007 12:25 AM               

THE APOLLO MOONWALKERS (ASTRONAUTS.) Color Photograph of the Earth, taken from the moon, signed by all twelve of the apollo astronauts who walked on the moon. Signed in the right and left margins. Approximately 7 1/2x9 1/2 inches (image) on a sheet of approximately 8x14 inches; vertical crack in right margin affecting three signatures; handsomely framed. not examined out of frame. Np, nd

posted 01-03-2023 02:41 PM               

There are several ways to go about it, such as collecting all 12 on a mixture/variety of items, such as photos, covers, index cards, etc. That would be the less difficult and less expensive way, but there are several other ways to better accomplish that goal.

Probably the most popular items are Apollo white spacesuit (WSS) portraits. Also popular would be business suit portraits, flight covers and cards, etc. Personal letters, ideally NASA stationary letters, are excellent but appear not to be overly popular.

The Apollo moonwalker autograph holy grail would be all 12 moonwalker autographs all on one item, such a lunar photo or a Saturn V launch photo. But it's believed that relatively few exist and very rarely any become available or are even shown.

Another exceptional goal would be autographs of all 24 Apollo lunar astronauts. That would include the 12 moonwalkers and the 12 Apollo lunar astronauts, those that orbited the moon or looped around it on Apollo 13.

posted 01-03-2023 03:49 PM               

Having all the 12 Apollo moonwalkers together on an appropriate lunar photo or just about any quality Apollo-related item would certainly be a spectacular feat, as Bob pointed out. Throughout my space autograph collecting career of 50+ years here on the Florida Space Coast, I have personally handled only two such pieces signed by all 12 lunar explorers.

One of those, a thin hard-bound book, "Exploring the Moon" from 1969, I had possession of for many years. Aldrin had inscribed-signed the inside cover page to a space fan that I knew and later acquired his collection with the signed book.

My favorite, though, was a superb original "final" Apollo 11 Flight Plan manual that had resided on a living room coffee table all throughout the Apollo program by a prominent Cocoa Beach space family. As astronauts were frequent visitors to her home, they had been asked to sign the front cover page of the flight plan. Unfortunately, as I didn't report earlier in this paragraph, all but one Apollo moonwalker had not been included (Jim Irwin). But all other flown Apollo astronauts from Apollo 7 to 17, including the command module pilots, were all together on the front cover page with 28 authentic signatures and with no personal inscriptions.

Once Apollo was over, I saw the manual while on a visit to the oceanside Cocoa Beach home- port, Irwin was still with us. I had offered to have the manual hand-signed by the eighth moonwalker, but that feat had never been accomplished. If it had been signed by the Apollo 15 LMP, which I had been trying to arrange before his untimely death, there was a strong possibility that the fully signed manual would have had a new home (mine)!

posted 01-04-2023 04:13 PM               

The other item is nicely autographed by all twelve moonwalkers and, as such, quite a rare item. This was on eBay approximately 20 years ago and was offered by Kotte-Autographs.

But of note is the dividing line that makes it appear like two separate parts were put together, with the Armstrong/Aldrin autographs on one part and the other ten on another. If so, it's just a two part signed item, with two on one part and 10 on the other and not completely signed by all 12 together on one item — hard to determine and who knows?

posted 01-04-2023 04:44 PM               

It does look like all of the other non-flown Apollo signed astronauts were in some way Apollo backup assigned (Joe Engle and ex-original prime), others for astronaut mission and science support, and/or for specific Capcom appointed positions.

posted 01-05-2023 10:23 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Ken Havekotte:
Perhaps the ultimate "holy grail" astronaut collection would be having all the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronaut signatures on a single piece.

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It was an excellent litho ("Apollo Manned Mission Emblems") that pictured all eleven Apollo emblems, with ten smaller emblems around a larger Apollo 17 emblem in the middle.

After acquiring a number of additional autographs on it, the litho ended up with autographs of all but three of the flown Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts. Only missing were Grissom, White and Anders.

Also, by having all but those three autographs, it resulted in the litho having autographs of every Mercury, Gemini and Apollo crew but four: Mercury-Redstone 4 (Grissom); Gemini-Titan 3 (Grissom); Gemini-Titan 4 (White) and Apollo 8 (Anders); 27 of the 31 crews.

Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of the signed litho and don't remember if it also had autographs of the Skylab and ASTP crews, which would have required seven more autographs. If it did, it would then have had autographs of every Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab and ASTP astronaut but three.

posted 01-06-2023 04:16 PM               

The ideal would be all 12 on white spacesuit portraits (WSS), but Jim Irwin WSS lithos are few and far between and sell for more than what most of us would be willing or able to pay.

Then how about business suit portraits? Certainly more doable and cheaper than going the WSS-route and would be impressive.

Flight covers and index cards? Except for Armstrong and Aldrin, all the other moonwalkers signed plenty of covers of their flights, including Jim Irwin. Ironically, Irwin-signed Apollo 15 flight covers are relatively plentiful, but certainly not his WSS lithos. Many have always wondered about that since he was a great signer for years and early on charged only $5 to sign anything and even would provide a signed litho of him on the moon for that $5.

For those with somewhat limited funds, it looks like a mixture of various items (photos, covers, cards, etc.) is a good way to achieve a complete set of autographs of all 12 Apollo moonwalkers.

By the way, get all your moonwalker autographs while you can because it looks like the new corps of Artemis astronauts who will climb aboard SLS rockets and fly around and land on the moon may not be as accommodating with their autographs as the Apollo astronauts were, going by the current state of astronaut autograph cooperation - or lack of - which is not as it used to be, by far.

posted 01-08-2023 11:18 AM               

Of note is an Alan Shepard autopen, but his authentic autograph evidently was applied later to have it complete by all 12 moonwalkers.

This is a very special complete moonwalker signed item, as all autographs certainly appear authentic and are well-applied.

I've located scans of two other moonwalker signed photos, but in each case one autograph appears suspect. One has a suspect Armstrong and the other a suspect Young. The suspect Young is of interest, as for years Young absolutely refused to sign any moonwalker autographed item to complete it citing that that would greatly increase its value. So possibly the owner couldn't wait and had a Young forgery applied so it would appear complete and be valuable.

Being a wise person, Young probably declined to sign such things waiting until he retired from NASA so he could start signing for a handsome fee and did so on several occasions at Novaspace. Us collectors were happy for those opportunities.

posted 01-08-2023 12:25 PM               

If I now recall some of the details about it, Shepard's autograph was more likely obtained in person here on the Space Coast during one of my private signings with the first Mercury astronaut and 5th moonwalker.