The Artemis II mission has been compared many times to the flight of Apollo 8, which was the first time humans had left low Earth orbit to venture out to the moon. The Apollo 8 crew orbited the moon 10 times on Christmas Eve 1968 sending back one of the most famous photos ever taken with the Earth in space rising over the lunar surface. The Artemis II crew completed a giant loop around the moon giving the crew the record for the greatest distance from Earth by humans. Both are truly historic missions.

With the successful completion of the Artemis II flight concluding with a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, I thought I would highlight a couple of Apollo 8 recovery covers from my collection. The first cover is postmarked aboard the prime recovery ship USS Yorktown and has the Beck printed cachet. The cover is signed by the crew of the recovery helicopter from Helo Squadron 4. This is the helo that picked up the Apollo 8 crew and brought them to the deck of the USS Yorktown.

The pilot of the helicopter was CDR Don Jones. He would also be the prime recovery pilot for the Apollo 11 recovery seven months later. I believe CDR Jones was sent this cover asking for his signature as well as the rest of the helo crew which he was able to get. My dad used to do this a lot. You had to be quick after the flight though as the crews were often broken up or shuffled around shortly after each flight. Interesting note that on all of the covers I have signed by CDR Jones he always used a red pen.