Regarded by many as the ultimate spaceflight collectible, flown artifacts from the golden age of manned spaceflight can be considered pieces of history.
It is evident that Lunar Module Pilots shared a bond as illustrated by these two items. This US flag, flown originally by Walt Cunningham on his own Apollo 7 mission was subsequently flown to lunar orbit by his Apollo 15 counterpart James Irwin.
In December 1968 this Apollo 8 embroidered patch was flown to the moon on man's first journey to another celestial body. Carried by Lunar Module Pilot William Anders and subsequently gifted to Walt Cunningham I recently had the opportunity to reacquaint Apollo 8 Command Module Pilot and all round legend Jim Lovell with a patch that had accompanied him to the moon and back.
It proved ironic, that having raced the Soviets the moon, mankind discovered the Earth with arguably the most famous photograph of all time.
I have been fortunate to meet eight of the men to have walked on the moon. Jim Lovell sadly did not get the chance following his aborted Apollo 13 mission but meeting him in October 2015 was a privilege.
Apollo 9 (March 3-13, 1969) saw the first manned flight
of both Apollo spacecraft (CSM and LM) and the first use of the Apollo A7L EVA
suit in the vacuum of space.
350 Robbins Medallions were flown and crew manifests
indicate “400 patches”. There is no evidence to suggest the patches were
anything other than mission patches. What is known is that 3 different
manufacturers produced these patches but which ones remains a mystery. Lion
Brothers and AB Emblem can be ruled out judging by their contemporary versions
of the Apollo 9 patch.
Other companies produced patches for the early Apollo
flights including the Stylized Emblem Co, Texas Art Embroidery and Dallas Cap
& Badge. I suspect one or possibly all three manufactured the flown Apollo
9 patches but I have nothing to corroborate the theory.
This particular patch is known at the “Crew Patch
Variant”. According to the excellent website crewpatches.com, “roughly a
quarter of all mission-flown embroidered patches are of this kind”… and
consequently is considered rare.
Sadly, I never had an opportunity to photograph Jim
McDivitt with these artefacts. Thankfully Novaspace Galleries (aka Astronaut
Central) who handled the sale of many items from Jim’s personal collection did
have him sign comprehensive, illustrated letters of authenticity for both.
Of all the Robbins medallion designs Apollo X I think is the most striking and my favourite. It captures particularly well the objectives of the mission. This example was obtained directly from Skylab astronaut Ed Gibson.
