Apollospace® offers rare and unique authentic space flown memorabilia. Read descriptions of some of our featured flown and rare items below.

Apollo Flown Kapton Foil on Covers

Apollo 11 flown command module “Columbia” Kapton foil

Apollospace is pleased to offer a collection of Apollo 11 vintage event and First Day covers which have been affixed with a remnant piece of Apollo 11 flown Kapton foil that was originally part of the protective insulation of the Apollo 11 Command Module, “Columbia,” and was flown in space from July 16-24, 1969. Apollo 11 was the first mission to land men on the Moon and return them safely to Earth. The Kapton from which the attached remnants were cut was originally auctioned by Goldberg Auctioneers from the personal collection of NASA Production Control Engineer William Whipkey (documents provided). That remnant was subsequently offered by Heritage Auctions on May 21-22, 2021 as LOT # 50254 (see images and documents provided) and was purchased by Apollospace at that time.

 

 

This large remnant, measuring approximately 4.75 x 2 inches, consisted of several layers which were separated into five individual pieces as shown below and marked A-E. The remnant attached to the covers was cut from the pieces marked as A & B pictured within the red box in the image below. The remnants cut from these pieces (measuring up to .25 inches square) were attached with archival glue to a total of 110 vintage Apollo 11 event or First Day of Issue covers.  6 cover proofs were retained and the remaining 104 covers marked as Nos. 1-104, Series A11-1, and offered exclusively by Apollospace.

 

 

Apollo 9 flown lunar module “Spider” Kapton foil

Apollospace is pleased to offer a collection of Apollo 9 event covers which have been affixed with a remnant piece of Kapton foil that was originally part of the protective insulation of the Apollo 9 Lunar Module, “Spider,” and was flown in space as part of that spacecraft from March 3-13, 1969. The original Kapton from which the attached remnants were cut was retrieved from the Lunar Module by Apollo 9 Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart shortly before the LM was jettisoned from the Command Module.

The remnants attached to these covers was cut from a larger piece measuring approximately 6-inches long that was part of Rusty Schweickart’s personal collection until consigned by him to Heritage Auction in May 2019 as LOT #50939, as shown in the images below.

That larger piece of Kapton was purchased by Apollospace at that time and sectioned off as shown: an approximately two-inch piece was retained, another piece measuring approximately 1.5 x 1.5 inches was cut into four smaller pieces measuring .75 x .75 inches each, and the remaining approximately 2.5-inch piece, pictured at center and boxed in red, was cut into smaller approximately .25 inch remnants which were attached with archival glue to 53 Apollo 9 event covers.  Three cover proofs were retained and the remaining 50 covers marked as Nos. 1-50. Series A9-2, and offered exclusively by Apollospace.

 

 

 

Apollo 13 flown command module “Odyssey” Kapton foil

Apollospace is pleased to offer a collection of Apollo 13 event covers which have been affixed with a remnant piece of Kapton foil that was originally part of the protective insulation of the Apollo 13 command module “Odyssey,” and was flown in space to the moon from April 11-17, 1970. The Kapton from which the attached remnants were cut was originally from the personal collection of NASA Production Control Engineer William Whipkey (see accompanying letter of authenticity from Sandy Clarkson of “The Right Stuff”) and subsequently purchased by Apollospace.

The Kapton foil consisted of two pieces, as further described in the accompanying letter of authenticity and marked as A & B in the image below. The smaller segment, marked B, measured approximately 3.5 x 1.75 inches, and was cut into two pieces as shown in the image below and marked as B-1 & B-2. The piece marked as B-1 was retained. The piece marked as B-2 (measuring approximately 1.75 x 1.75 inches) was further cut into 44 smaller pieces, each measuring approximately .25 inches wide, as shown in the image below. These pieces were attached with archival glue to 44 vintage Apollo 13 event covers, marked as Nos. 1- 44. Series A13-1, and offered exclusively by Apollospace.