|
Author
|
Topic: Apollo 14 flown Beta cloth square (RR Auction)
|
Chuckster01
Member Posts: 873
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: Jan 2014
|
posted 04-30-2018 06:21 PM
   
Please correct me if I am wrong but is the item listed in the current RR auction, lot 604, a 1" x 1" Beta cloth square attached to what I believe is the same letter that accompanied the Apollo 14 lanyard cards? It seems to me that someone may have reused the same letter in this auction lot and added the Beta cloth sample? Has anyone seen this before and is it a NASA issue?  |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 04-30-2018 11:36 PM
A quick search shows that Regency Stamps auctioned another example of the same in 2013. Heritage sold another one in 2014. |
Chuckster01
Member Posts: 873
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: Jan 2014
|
posted 05-01-2018 05:19 AM
I have seen these sell in the past but that does not answer the question of authenticity.This is the same letter from Charlie Mars. Charlie served as chief of Lunar Module Project Engineering office and also project engineer for the command and service module for the Apollo Program.  
As you can see the letters are exactly the same except for the extra header and having the surface flown safety line awards given to numerous NASA employees (and clearly stating what it is and where it came from). Why cut up a Beta cloth and put it on the same letter with no clear description of what it is? Also can a beta cloth patch section be considered a piece of equipment? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
|
posted 05-01-2018 07:37 AM
Without commenting on the authenticity of the Apollo 14 square (because I don't know if it is authentic or not), it may be relevant to point out that the prior crew gave out squares of fabric without identifying what they were either.Although we now know that the fabric was from the Apollo 13 crew's couches, at least one style of the certificate presenting it made no mention of such, describing it only as a piece of the command module.  Also, not all Beta cloth comes from patches. Beta cloth was used elsewhere in the spacecraft, too. For what it is worth, when I first saw the Apollo 14 letter with the Beta cloth square I thought it was misidentified and was rather an attach point for one of the safety line cards. |
mmmoo
Member Posts: 551
From: London, England
Registered: May 2001
|
posted 05-01-2018 10:17 AM
There was also this lot in RR Auction's April 2018 auction. |
advertisement