Apollo 11 Crew Signed

Just acquired a large collection of Apollo 11 items from the estate of George E. Moeller, Associate Administrator of the NASA Office of Manned Space Flight.

Moeller played an active role ensuring the success of the Apollo program, was instrumental in the design of Skylab, and played a leading role in the development of the space shuttle program which earned him the nickname of "the father of the space shuttle."

Here is a look at one complete mint condition crew signed set.

1 member likes this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul on December 28, 2016 at 6:41pm

Were they expensive?

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by hitmanten on December 28, 2016 at 6:54pm

I know they're worth more than what I paid for them, but nonetheless it wasn't inexpensive.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Steve Zarelli on December 29, 2016 at 11:27am

Nice!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mike White on January 8, 2017 at 5:35am

See, now I'm confused.

Either I'm not thinking of the right guy or the guy you're talking about is widely (read: entirely) credited as being named Mueller. I've never heard his name as "Moeller" (and have, in fact, read legal documentation attesting to "Mueller" as his legal name).

But there, clear as day, are not just 1, but 2, pictures inscribed with an O, rather than a U.

So either there was a clerical error in the Astronaut Office, there was a clerical error literally everywhere else in the man's life, or the provenance is faulty. Frankly, I find all 3 to be fairly hard to believe.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by hitmanten on January 8, 2017 at 7:37am

It's puzzling, no doubt, Mike. Let me add one more to the discussion. Also, the wikipedia which cites his name in at least several places as "Moeller".

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by hitmanten on January 8, 2017 at 7:51am

Or this.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by hitmanten on January 8, 2017 at 7:55am

...and this (not mine), also to "Moeller", which recently sold at auction.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mike White on January 8, 2017 at 2:45pm

Just to be clear, I don't doubt you or your pieces.

I'm just a bit confused that his colleagues don't appear to know how to spell his name.

My thought was that the Astronaut Office typed up a list of names for "courtesy" autographs and misspelled it in doing so. A ring finger instead of the index finger and that's where you'd end up.

That said, I'd also assumed that they'd make a point to not make such a mistake with men of Dr. Mueller's influence & impact.

My next thought was that it may have been one of those situations where it got lost in translation & nobody was necessarily clear on how to spell it. But he was born domestically to two American parents, so the odds seem unlikely.

In thinking about this today, I do vaguely recall this coming up before in some forum, but I also recall dismissing it as a less than educated fan (similar to how people have taken to adding a "t" to Gene Kranz's last name). Imagining a Neil Armstrong dedicated to "Eugene F. Krantz" essentially sums up my confusion in what I'm looking at here.

I'm inclined to lean towards "a slip of a finger from an overworked secretary" but I don't know. Obviously Dr. Mueller passed away a little over a year ago or so, so it's not like we can just ask him what's up with this.

I do apologize if I came off as though my issue was with your or your pieces rather than the situation though. I was a bit tired and in a rush, so I wasn't necessarily as clear as I would've preferred.