THE 12 APOLLO MOONWALKERS
  Home | Multi-Signed | 5 Most Historic Flt's | Moonwalkers | 1st 43 | In Memory | Other | Yuri Gagarin-1 | Yuri Gagarin-2 | Forgeries  

On this page is presented individual autographs of the twelve Apollo moonwalkers.
Most Websites that present autographs of the 12 moonwalkers, display them on either Apollo white spacesuit (WSS) portraits or a mixture of signed portraits and images of them on the lunar surface. But here I have presented a different type of set. It's a set of flight covers (postmarked envelopes) autographed by each moonwalker, with each cover displaying a cachet (design) of the flight's mission emblem or crew patch. Also presented are crew signed covers by each of the six Apollo Lunar landing crews.

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Charles Conrad:
Moonwalkers number one, two and three. On Apollo 11, Armstrong and Aldrin accomplished the first moonlanding on July 20, 1969. Charles Conrad was the commander of Apollo 12 and landed the Lunar Module on the moon's Ocean of Storms on November 19, 1969.
Alan Bean, Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell:
Moonwalkers number four, five and six. Alan Bean was the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 12. Alan Shepard was Apollo 14 Commander and he and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell, accomplished the Apollo Program's third lunar landing on February 5, 1971.
Dave Scott, Jim Irwin and John Young:
Moonwalkers number seven, eight and nine. Dave Scott was Apollo 15 Commander and he and Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin safely landed in the Moon's Apennine Mountains on July 30, 1971 achieving the Apollo Program's fourth successful manned lunar landing. John Young was the Apollo 16 Commander and successfully landed the Lunar Module in the Decartes region of the moon.
Charlie Duke, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt:
Moonwalkers number ten, eleven and twelve. Charlie Duke served as the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 16. Gene Cernan was the Apollo 17 Commander and he and LMP Harrison Schmitt achieved the Apollo Program's final moonlanding on December 11, 1972. Gene Cernan became the last man on the moon on December 14 when he followed Schmitt into the Lunar Module before successfully blasting off from the moon's surface & beginning their long flight back home.
Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 lunar flight crews.
These two crew signed covers, referred to as Apollo Insurance Covers, were autographed by each crew prior to their missions to the moon. Because of their risky careers as astronauts, ordinary life insurance wasn't available to them, so Apollo crews 11 thru 16 autographed a large number of covers to be left behind with their families to serve as a type of life insurance. If their missions resulted in tragedy, the Insurance covers would then be valuable items and could be sold to provide money for their families.

Fortunately never used as intended, these crew signed Insurance Covers now serve as popular collector items.
Apollo 14 and Apollo 15 lunar flight crews
Two more examples of Apollo Insurance Covers. These, like the others, were autographed prior to their flights and were left behind with their families. Now serving another purpose, they reside in many collections worldwide. While astronaut autograph forgeries exist on many different types of material, such as photos, covers, cards, etc., Insurance Covers provide possibly the best and most reliable way to obtain authentic Apollo 11 thru Apollo 16 crew autographs with little or no concern of forgery.
Apollo 16 and Apollo 17 lunar flight crews
The Apollo Insurance Covers ended with Apollo 16, as no official Insurance Covers are known for Apollo 17. Crew signed Insurance Covers were prepared for Apollo 13, but those covers were signed days or weeks before launch by the original crew and the last-minute replacement of Ken Mattingly by Jack Swigert, resulted in Apollo 13 Insurance covers being signed by Lovell, Haise and Mattingly, but not by Swigert who flew in Mattingly's place. But some Apollo 13 Insurance covers were later signed also by Jack Swigert, resulting in rare Apollo 13 Insurance covers signed by the actual crew that flew on Apollo 13, plus Ken Mattingly.

The Apollo 17 cover shown here is an "ordinary" Apollo 17 crew patch/mission emblem cacheted cover that was autographed after the flight by the Apollo 17 crew.