stsmithva
Member Posts: 1933
From: Fairfax, VA, USA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 04-21-2013 11:13 PM
   
SOLD Here is a fine vintage flown Apollo 8 heat shield segment acrylic, made (probably by North American Rockwell, based on the writing on the base) in the shape of the command module - complete with indentations where the windows were.   It is 9 cm wide and 8 cm tall. The piece of heat shield within is shaped like 1/4 of a cylinder, and is 2 cm tall and almost 2 cm wide. There is a 1 cm chip near the tip of the piece - it's actually pretty hard to notice in the photos, and doesn't really jump out on the real item. (If you just display it with the side with the chip facing away, it disappears.) The other two things that might look like chips were part of the original design - they are the aforementioned windows indentations.  Along with the relatively large piece of heat shield, there are embedded in the acrylic four triangles of what are probably flown Kapton foil pieces that the maker must have also gotten. It's not mentioned in the writing on the base, so I can't guarantee it, but the gold/silver coloring certainly looks like Kapton.  I think this vintage Apollo 8 flown heat shield acrylic is better-looking than this one, which sold for $3,388. This one is SOLD $1,700. Please write if you are interested in buying it and would like high-resolution photographs of it. An actual piece of the first spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, preserved in acrylic that is still nice and clear after 45 years, would be a wonderful addition to any space collection. |
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