Apollo 15 stamp affair

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The incident known as the Apollo 15 postage stamp scandal resulted in stricter rules for what astronauts were allowed to take on board. A few months after Apollo 15's flight to the moon, it emerged that the three astronauts David Scott , James Irwin and Alfred Worden had taken envelopes into space without permission, which were later sold as collectibles.

Approved and unapproved envelopes

The intermediary between the astronauts and the stamp trade was Horst Walter Eiermann , an American of German origin who, as Vice President of the Dyna-Therm group, was a supplier to the Kennedy Space Center and was close friends with many astronauts. The idea of ​​taking envelopes and stamps to the moon and then selling them came from the German stamp dealer Hermann Walter Sieger from Lorch . He was the son of the stamp dealer Hermann E. Sieger and met Eiermann in 1970.

In the spring of 1971, Eiermann first suggested to Scott, later to Worden and Irwin, that he take 100 envelopes to the moon for him. The astronauts insisted that these letters be kept until the end of the Apollo program, after which they would only be offered privately. Eiermann then offered three times $ 7,000 in savings accounts. The three astronauts agreed and decided to take 300 more envelopes to the moon.

NASA astronauts were allowed to take some personal items with them on their space flights, although it was not allowed to sell them later as souvenirs for personal gain. All items had to be listed and approved beforehand.

When Apollo 15 launched on July 26, 1971, the astronauts carried 243 approved envelopes, including one stamped on the moon by Scott and an envelope signed by Orville Wright from 1928. Another 144 envelopes were also approved and transported by Worden.

Facsimile of the moon letter

100 of them had been stamped with a special Apollo 15 stamp by F. Herrick, a friend of Worden. In addition, there were 87 envelopes on board that were actually intended for the Apollo 12 flight , but were not taken. Irwin carried these envelopes with her and gave them to Barbara Gordon, wife of Apollo 12 pilot Richard Gordon, after the flight . In addition, 398 unauthorized vehicles were transported by Scott in a pocket of his spacesuit. They carried a special Apollo 11 stamp of 10 cents that had been postmarked at the Kennedy Space Center on the day of departure. These envelopes were by no means smuggled on board, but, like the authorized items, were packed by the ground crew. Had those 398 envelopes been on the list, they would probably have been routinely approved as well.

After the landing

Apollo 15 landed in the Pacific on August 7, 1971, and the astronauts were brought aboard the USS Okinawa . There they stuck two 8-cent stamps on both the 398 unapproved and 144 approved envelopes, which were then stamped by the ship's post office on the same day. Thus the envelopes were stamped with the start and landing days of the mission. Scott, Worden, and Irwin signed these envelopes on the flight from Hawaii to Houston. 16 of the approved envelopes were damaged and thrown away. The unapproved envelopes were later handwritten "Landed at Hadley, Moon, July 30, 1971, Dave Scott, Jim Irwin". The 100 envelopes that Eiermann had promised received a typewritten certificate: "This is to certify that this envelope was on board the Falcon in the Hadley Apennines, Moon, July 30th to August 2nd, 1971", signed by a notary has been.

On September 2nd, Scott sent the 100 agreed and certified envelopes to Eiermann, who was in Stuttgart at the time. Eiermann passed them on to Sieger. Sieger paid an unknown sum for this and offered the envelopes publicly for sale. He later stated that he did not know that the envelopes would not be sold until after the Apollo program ended. In November 1971, 99 of them had already been sold, at an average price of DM 4,850  . When Scott found out about this, he called Eiermann to stop further sales and return the remaining envelopes.

In the meantime, Eiermann had paid $ 7,000 for each of the astronauts, or $ 6,000 according to some sources, into German savings accounts. In February 1972, Scott, Irwin and Worden decided not to accept the money. Eiermann then offered that each of the astronauts should receive a collector's album. After initial approval, this offer was also rejected in April 1972.

Worden gave 28 of his remaining 128 envelopes to various friends, the remaining 100 to his friend Herrick, 28 of which were for Herrick himself, 12 for Herrick's son and 60 for safekeeping. Herrick had sold some of his envelopes for $ 7,175.

The investigation

When NASA found out about the affair in June 1972, it confiscated both the remaining 298 envelopes and the 60 envelopes that Worden kept with Herrick and opened a formal investigation.

NASA warned the three astronauts and certified them "poor judgment", whereby "their actions should affect future nominations". This ended the active space career for Scott, Worden and Irwin. This was published in an 18-page NASA press release on September 15, 1972, which also contained new instructions: From now on, only twelve items with a total weight of less than 230 g (half an American pound ) were allowed per astronaut . The items had to be approved by the head of NASA and were not allowed to be used commercially. The list of items was published after the flight.

The US Senate Space Committee also considered this matter. But since no laws had been violated, only NASA internal instructions, there was no need for action. It turned out that unauthorized objects had already been carried on previous space flights.

Unapproved clock

During the investigation, it was also found that Scott had taken a wristwatch on board without authorization and put it on over his spacesuit during a walk on the moon. He had promised a friend that he would test this watch for the manufacturer for its suitability for space flights. NASA initially did not announce the manufacturer of the watch because it should not receive additional publicity . According to the official NASA mission protocol, it was a Bulova Chronograph.

Effects on the astronauts

Shortly after the landing, the entire Apollo 15 crew was assigned as a replacement crew for the last Apollo 17 flight to the moon . However, after their association with the stamp trade became known, Scott, Worden and Irwin were removed from the list on May 23, 1972.

Irwin left NASA on July 31, 1972. Worden moved to the Ames Research Center in California and left NASA in September 1975. Scott became director of the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base . He left NASA in October 1977.

Another astronaut, Jack Swigert , is also said to have been involved in a stamp trade with Sieger. Although he had not taken any envelopes on board Apollo 13 , after all, he had only been taken into the crew a few days before the start, he had allegedly signed stamp pads for winners. Apparently there is no official statement from NASA on this case; there are rumors that Swigert was eligible for the Apollo-Soyuz flight but was rejected by NASA management.

Whereabouts of the letters

In January 2019 one of the letters was shown at the “Antik & Kunst” trade fair in Sindelfingen . It should be auctioned in March with a starting bid of 22,000 euros. However, no bid was made at this price.

Web links

literature

  • Belmont Faries, A Lunar Bonanza , Washington Star, June 18, 1972,
  • William Hines, NASA Probing Moon Stamp Caper , Washington Star, July 2, 1972,
  • Harold M. Schmeck, Jr., Apollo 15 Crew Is Reprimanded , New York Times , July 12, 1972;
  • Apollo 15 "Postmen" Officially Reprimanded , Houston Post, July 12, 1972;
  • Postmark: The Moon , Newsweek, July 24, 1972;
  • Thomas O'Toole, Ex-Astronauts Disregarded Warning Against "Souvenirs," Washington Post, Aug. 1, 1972.
  • Richard D. Lyons, Astronauts and Space Officials Heard At Inquiry on Exploitation of Souvenirs , New York Times, Aug. 4, 1972.
  • Lester E. Winick, Report on Apollo 15 Covers - Smuggled and Authorized , The American Philatelist 86 (10) (1972): 887-95,
  • "Lookalike" Apollo 15 Covers Prompt Philatelists' Caution , The American Philatelist, 86 (11) (Nov. 1972): 992-98.
  • The Apollo 15 moon letter affair , PM magazine issue 05/2011

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Flight journal : 142: 14: 22 MET
  2. ↑ dpa : Unauthorized souvenir to the moon: "Moon letter" to be seen in Sindelfingen. In: Heise online . 16th January 2019 . Retrieved January 22, 2019.
  3. ↑ Apollo 15 mission: Scandal letter from the moon flops at auction . In: Spiegel Online . March 22, 2019 ( spiegel.de [accessed March 23, 2019]).