North American Aviation Inc. 1968 Letter of NASA’s original Roster of Astronaut

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North American Aviation Inc. 1968 Letter of NASA’s original “Roster of Astronauts”
An original June 20th 1968, North American Aviation Inc., Internal Letter of NASA’s original “Roster of Astronauts” for the upcoming Apollo’s 7 (AS-205), 8 (AS-503), and 9 (AS-504) missions.
Noteworthy of this Roster of Astronauts, are the crew changes of the Apollo 8 (AS-503) and Apollo 9 (AS-504) missions.
These changes sent Astronauts
Frank Borman
,
James Lovell
, and
William Anders
to Lunar Orbit, instead of the Scheduled crew of Mcdivitt, Scott, Schweickart.
We Also Beat The Russians To The Moon! And The Cold War!!
2 pages both in Very Good Used condition with no folds, dog ears, writing, or stains.
Please see attached pictures
Shipping includes a Tracking Number
These changes were essentially -
Mcdivitt’s crew was to fly Apollo (AS-503).
Borman’s crew was to fly Apollo (AS-504). In mid-1968 Collins had to leave the crew due to a medical problem, and was replaced by Lovell from the backup crew.
Cancellations to Apollo missions by NASA, and the Urgency to beat the Russians to the Moon, changed (AS-503) into the Apollo 8 Lunar Orbit mission.
Deke Slayton (
Chief of the Astronaut Office
and Director of Flight Crew Operations, responsible for NASA crew assignments) offered McDivitt the opportunity to stay with Apollo 8 and thus go to lunar orbit.
McDivitt turned it down on behalf of his crew and the good of the Apollo program, preferring instead to stay with the D mission, now Apollo 9. The primary objective of this mission was to test all aspects of the Lunar Module in Earth orbit, including operation of the LM as an independent self-sufficient spacecraft and performance of docking and rendezvous maneuvers. The goal was to simulate maneuvers which would be performed in actual lunar missions. Other concurrent objectives included overall checkout of launch vehicle and spacecraft systems, crew, and procedures.
Apollo 9’s Extremely Important mission proved the LM to be that independent self-sufficient spacecraft, and the performance of docking and rendezvous maneuvers paving the way for the Successful Apollo 10 mission, and the next step the Apollo 11 Lunar Landing.
The Apollo 8 mission was flown crewmembers
Frank Borman
,
James Lovell
, and
William Anders
. It was the first crewed
spacecraft
to leave
low Earth orbit
, and also the first
human spaceflight
to reach another
astronomical object
, namely the
Moon
, which the crew orbited without landing, and then departed safely back to
Earth
. Borman’s crew, were also the first humans to witness and photograph an
Earthrise
.