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T O P I C R E V I E WColinBurgessRecently my grandson and I were looking through hundreds of pins, patches and other bits and pieces I have accumulated over the decades, when he came across one which I'd forgotten I had, and have no idea how it came to be in my collection. It is silver and about the same size and weight as an Australian 20 cent coin (and slightly larger than a gold US dollar coin).On the front of the medallion are the words "The Eagle Has Landed" and "July 20, 1969" encircling an image of an astronaut standing in front of the US flag on the moon. On the obverse there are just 12 lines of text, which state: "This medallion contains metal from spacecrafts Columbia and Eagle, that took Astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins on their historic Apollo 11 mission that resulted in the first landing of man on the Moon." Unfortunately there is no accompanying paperwork or identifier - just the medallion.Does anyone know of this commemorative medallion and something of its origins?Robert PearlmanWhat you have Colin is the Apollo 11 medallion issued by the NASA Manned Flight Awareness Office in 1970. The Barco Mint of New Orleans struck 200,000 medallions for the space agency, made in part from a heat shield bolt removed from the command module Columbia and a pulley clamp returned to Earth from the lunar module Eagle.The medallions were issued to NASA employees and contractors in several formats. Some were accompanied by certificates, others were mounted in acrylic stands. The medallion was the second such "flown-metal melt" issued by the Manned Flight Awareness Office, following one for Apollo 8. Others were later distributed for Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, the Approach and Landing Test Program, STS-1, STS-3 and NASA's 25th anniversary (with flown metal from STS-5). Decades later, after the office changed titles to Space Flight Awareness, additional medallions were distributed, beginning with STS-71 (Shuttle-Mir), and then continuing through STS-88 and STS-98 in recognition of International Space Station milestones. ColinBurgessMany thanks Robert, not only for identifying the medallion for me, but for the background information. With 200,000 being struck I'd imagine they are not quite as valuable as I first thought, but it's still a nice keepsake.fredtravColin, you can find them on eBay regularly for about $20-$30.ColinBurgessThanks Fred; amazing to see that something containing metal from the two Apollo 11 spacecraft - however microscopic - can be had for such an easily affordable price.spaced outI agree with Fred's estimate above, although sometimes they can sell as high as $50 or so.The Apollo 8, 11 and STS-1 MFA medallions all sell in roughly the same range of $20 to $50 on eBay.denali414Supply/demand still rule price. While many of the flown coins have small mintages of 500 to a few thousand, there are 200,000 of these coins. This in my opinion, while Apollo 11 is the "biggie" of collecting, the supply is always there for such a small collecting community in buying this coin, thus keeping the price down.Ken HavekotteHere is a little more background about the Manned Flight Awareness (MFA) Apollo 11 medallions:In late 1962, Dr. Wernher von Braun was getting concerned about what could go wrong when the first Apollo lunar missions will be getting underway.A young biochemist professor and researcher at Auburn University had been recruited by NASA a year earlier. His name was Dr. Preston T. Farish, a native of Beatrice, in southwest Alabama. He went to work at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and attended a group meeting at the Huntsville space center in which von Braun addressed the above remarks."I know we can design and build a vehicle to go to the moon," Farish remembers the legendary rocket pioneer saying in that early meeting. "But what bothers me is what if some guy just goofs up and blows the whole thing up."Farish described his job at that time as a spaceflight "human expert." He explained further that he was in charge of the biological aspect of the astronaut program. Anything to do with the astronauts, Farish said, it was my task to interface with them.So the director of MSFC asked his "human expert" to look for a solution to the possible concern or problem of human error. That's exactly what Farish did, in launching a story that lives today in hundreds of thousands of special memento-participation medallions. But he first wanted to see how bad the problem was. Farish got a reluctant Air Force to give him figures that showed 60% of missile system failures could be linked to human screw-ups. He took those figures and report findings back to von Braun in 1963."He said, in effect, "You started it; you finish it," Back in his office, Farish slowly went over the five human senses, looking for reasons that workers "goof up" when they're building parts of a rocket ship. Even a psychologist was consulted on the project, Farish added. After all was said and worked on during the study, he concluded that just some "plain common sense" was needed.What Farish finally came up with was known as NASA's Manned Flight Awareness program. The idea was if workers knew how important their work was, they would take extra care. But credit for the early beginnings of the MFA program must include Dr. D. Brainerd Holmes, director of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight, Washington, D.C., along with technical writer Mitchell Sharpe of MSFC working with von Braun.It was Holmes that first suggested to von Braun that an employee motivation program would be helpful during the formative years of our nation's manned space program. He put von Braun in charge of it.At the request of Farish, Sharpe, an Auburn alumnus co-worker of his, helped Farish during the early formation period of the MFA offices that had been established at the major field space centers in Huntsville, Houston, and the Cape area.During the last year of NASA's Mercury orbital spaceflight period, the new program actually got started as the Mercury Awareness Program. It was, however, very limited in scope and budget. After Project Mercury had ended, the program was renamed Manned Flight Awareness, later as Space Flight Awareness, and now-a-days also as Zero Defects."We wanted to get the message across that you've got to have pride in what you're doing because it's part of a national program that's going to make history, Farish once told a reporter.To get that important message across, however, he felt he needed some bigger names than himself. He told von Braun there are two people I need: you and the astronauts! Von Braun told Farish, "you got me and the astronauts."MartinAirVery interesting. What size is the medallion?Does the booklet version command significant premium, like over 250$?
On the front of the medallion are the words "The Eagle Has Landed" and "July 20, 1969" encircling an image of an astronaut standing in front of the US flag on the moon. On the obverse there are just 12 lines of text, which state: "This medallion contains metal from spacecrafts Columbia and Eagle, that took Astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins on their historic Apollo 11 mission that resulted in the first landing of man on the Moon." Unfortunately there is no accompanying paperwork or identifier - just the medallion.
Does anyone know of this commemorative medallion and something of its origins?
The medallions were issued to NASA employees and contractors in several formats. Some were accompanied by certificates, others were mounted in acrylic stands.
The medallion was the second such "flown-metal melt" issued by the Manned Flight Awareness Office, following one for Apollo 8. Others were later distributed for Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, the Approach and Landing Test Program, STS-1, STS-3 and NASA's 25th anniversary (with flown metal from STS-5).
Decades later, after the office changed titles to Space Flight Awareness, additional medallions were distributed, beginning with STS-71 (Shuttle-Mir), and then continuing through STS-88 and STS-98 in recognition of International Space Station milestones.
The Apollo 8, 11 and STS-1 MFA medallions all sell in roughly the same range of $20 to $50 on eBay.
In late 1962, Dr. Wernher von Braun was getting concerned about what could go wrong when the first Apollo lunar missions will be getting underway.
A young biochemist professor and researcher at Auburn University had been recruited by NASA a year earlier. His name was Dr. Preston T. Farish, a native of Beatrice, in southwest Alabama. He went to work at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center and attended a group meeting at the Huntsville space center in which von Braun addressed the above remarks.
"I know we can design and build a vehicle to go to the moon," Farish remembers the legendary rocket pioneer saying in that early meeting. "But what bothers me is what if some guy just goofs up and blows the whole thing up."
Farish described his job at that time as a spaceflight "human expert." He explained further that he was in charge of the biological aspect of the astronaut program. Anything to do with the astronauts, Farish said, it was my task to interface with them.
So the director of MSFC asked his "human expert" to look for a solution to the possible concern or problem of human error. That's exactly what Farish did, in launching a story that lives today in hundreds of thousands of special memento-participation medallions.
But he first wanted to see how bad the problem was. Farish got a reluctant Air Force to give him figures that showed 60% of missile system failures could be linked to human screw-ups. He took those figures and report findings back to von Braun in 1963.
"He said, in effect, "You started it; you finish it," Back in his office, Farish slowly went over the five human senses, looking for reasons that workers "goof up" when they're building parts of a rocket ship. Even a psychologist was consulted on the project, Farish added. After all was said and worked on during the study, he concluded that just some "plain common sense" was needed.
What Farish finally came up with was known as NASA's Manned Flight Awareness program. The idea was if workers knew how important their work was, they would take extra care.
But credit for the early beginnings of the MFA program must include Dr. D. Brainerd Holmes, director of NASA's Office of Manned Space Flight, Washington, D.C., along with technical writer Mitchell Sharpe of MSFC working with von Braun.
It was Holmes that first suggested to von Braun that an employee motivation program would be helpful during the formative years of our nation's manned space program. He put von Braun in charge of it.
At the request of Farish, Sharpe, an Auburn alumnus co-worker of his, helped Farish during the early formation period of the MFA offices that had been established at the major field space centers in Huntsville, Houston, and the Cape area.
During the last year of NASA's Mercury orbital spaceflight period, the new program actually got started as the Mercury Awareness Program. It was, however, very limited in scope and budget. After Project Mercury had ended, the program was renamed Manned Flight Awareness, later as Space Flight Awareness, and now-a-days also as Zero Defects.
"We wanted to get the message across that you've got to have pride in what you're doing because it's part of a national program that's going to make history, Farish once told a reporter.
To get that important message across, however, he felt he needed some bigger names than himself. He told von Braun there are two people I need: you and the astronauts! Von Braun told Farish, "you got me and the astronauts."
Does the booklet version command significant premium, like over 250$?
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