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Apollo Lunar Module Vintage Grumman Contractor's Model Originally from the Personal Collection of Gordon Cooper, with His Lett...
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$2,375.00
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Description
"I had hoped to fly my own LM and land on the moon. . ."
Ex. Gordon Cooper
Apollo Lunar Module Vintage Grumman Contractor's Model
Originally from the Personal Collection of Gordon Cooper, with His
Letter of Authenticity. Manufactured for Grumman by Precise
Models, Inc. prior to the Apollo 11 moon landing. The 10.25"
diameter black base has color logos of both Grumman and NASA with
the text "Lunar Module". The two-piece LM is removable from the
base, made of injection-molded plastic, and is approximately 6"
tall and 10" across. It accurately separates into Ascent and
Descent Stages and has numerous tiny projecting parts. Exhibits
very little of the toning from age as is often seen with these
models, very fine.Included is a signed Letter of Authenticity on Gordon Cooper's personal letterhead. It reads, in full:
"This is a great little model of the Lunar Module made for the folks at Grumman. It reminds me of my trips to their Bethpage, New York facility during my Apollo days. That was some of the most interesting work I performed during the program.
"I was selected by NASA as one of the seven Mercury Astronauts in 1959. I then got the assignment for the Mercury Atlas 9 mission and named by spacecraft "Faith 7." I made 22 orbits during that mission in May 1963. That was the longest and best of the Mercury earth orbital missions. We had really come a long way from those early days in 1959.
"My next flight assignment was Gemini 5 with Charles "Pete" Conrad. We made an eight day earth orbital mission in August 1965. That was a world record at that time and Gemini 5 was the turning point where the United States took the lead from the Soviet Union in manned space flight accomplishments. Those eight days approximated the length time a lunar landing mission was scheduled to take. Later. I worked as back-up commander of Gemini 12, then moved to Apollo Program activities.
"I had trained extensively as the back-up commander for the Apollo 10 mission both at the Houston LM mission simulator and at Grumman in New York with the actual Apollo 10 Lunar Module which was later nick-named "Snoopy." The model really reminds me of the many hours working those training tasks. I had hoped to fly my own LM and land on the moon during the next crew rotation scheduled to be Apollo 13. However, the dynamics of certain personalities in the astronaut office and other "issues" never allowed my moon landing flight to happen."
Auction Info
2022 December 15 - 16 Space Exploration Signature® Auction #6262 (go to Auction Home page)
Auction Dates
December, 2022
15th-16th
Thursday-Friday
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: 7
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
Page Views: 434
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