Apollo 15 postage stamp incident • Hacker News Board

Re: Apollo 15 postage stamp incident

#51

Post by daveslash » Wed, May 01, 2019, 12:38 PM UTC

mimixco wrote: post #2

Fascinating. I'd never heard this. Also of interest are the "insurance covers" signed by Apollo 11 astronauts as a form of life insurance and mentioned in a linked Wikipedia article.

It wasn't just Apollo 11, it was Apollo 11-16. What blew me away about this was the fact that this was, in essence, DIY life-insurance because they couldn't get insurance. I never gave it much though; I just assumed that the U.S. government would have agreed "okay guys, if you get killed going to the moon, we'll make sure your families are taken care of". Guess not? From the Wikipedia page on Apollo Insurance Covers "The ability of astronauts to obtain much life insurance was limited, so they signed hundreds of postal covers before they left, on the presumption that they would become highly valuable in the event of their death." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_insurance_covers

Re: Apollo 15 postage stamp incident

#52

Post by JoeAltmaier » Wed, May 01, 2019, 3:23 PM UTC

Beldin wrote: post #50

simonh wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s nothing to do with commercial bias. The personal effects allowance was assigned in order to aid astronaut morale. If they’re sacrificing allowance for personal items commercially that creates a perverse and distracting situation. Also personal effects are supposed to go through a approval process, which at least some of these covers bypassed. Do you really want astronauts making trade offs between genuinely pers…

"The personal effects allowance was assigned in order to aid astronaut morale." This strikes me as a weird reason to object: surely, Getting significant financial gain could help aid morale. I'm not in favour of astronauts using their launches to establish a for-profit souvenir business. But I'm not objecting to that on the grounds of their morale.

They needed to be recorded and approved as safe for the cabin. These were smuggled. It was a breach, and was punished.

If they'd applied, who knows, they might have been approved. Afterward, everybody talks about how awful it was. But that was just blather.

Re: Apollo 15 postage stamp incident

#53

Post by simonh » Wed, May 01, 2019, 4:56 PM UTC

Beldin wrote: post #50

simonh wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s nothing to do with commercial bias. The personal effects allowance was assigned in order to aid astronaut morale. If they’re sacrificing allowance for personal items commercially that creates a perverse and distracting situation. Also personal effects are supposed to go through a approval process, which at least some of these covers bypassed. Do you really want astronauts making trade offs between genuinely pers…

"The personal effects allowance was assigned in order to aid astronaut morale." This strikes me as a weird reason to object: surely, Getting significant financial gain could help aid morale. I'm not in favour of astronauts using their launches to establish a for-profit souvenir business. But I'm not objecting to that on the grounds of their morale.

Carrying commercially valuable goods can also be a source of pressure and anxiety. It's a messy situation to get into.