Collecting 50 Years of NASA Space History

At a celebration of NASA's 50th anniversary held outside Washington, DC late last month, a champagne toast was offered in recognition of the five decades of exploration that the agency had accomplished. NASA had put men on the moon, sent probes to the planets, and improved our understanding of life here at home.

As invited guests raised their glasses, many noticed that on the side of the flute was imprinted with the logo for NASA's 50 years. As the toast ended and the glasses were emptied, some held onto to the stemware as a souvenir of the event and NASA's anniversary.

These glasses were just the latest example of five decades of commemorative mementos collected in the wake of NASA's crowning space achievements.

The public, enamored by space exploration, has long desired to own a piece of NASA's adventures. In some instances, the space agency met this longing by sharing memorabilia that had been carried to orbit on some of its flights. More often, companies looking to celebrate the United States' space achievements produced collectibles inspired by NASA's missions and milestones.

Even the astronauts got into the game. While America's first astronaut, Alan Shepard had only enough room to fly a U.S. flag on his sub-orbital Mercury flight, Virgil "Gus" Grissom, who followed Shepard to space, packed his spacesuit pockets with miniature Mercury capsules and rolls of Roosevelt dimes. Originally intended for friends and family members, these early space-flown trinkets have been passed down and traded to become very popular NASA collectibles.

In the years that followed, astronauts extended the tradition, flying mementos for those close to them, but also carrying medallions for themselves. They designed mission patches, small embroidered and silk-screened emblems that uniquely represented their flight. Replicas of these insignia were produced for the public and the hobby of space patch collecting was born. Today, hundreds of individual designs offer a colorful timeline to space history and allow everyone the chance to own a tangible connection with their favorite space explorers and missions.

Astronaut autographs were also immensely popular. No sooner had NASA announced its first seven astronauts in 1959, were requests for the newly named American heroes' signatures received. NASA did its best to fulfill every request but the demand was so great, that had the astronauts answered every mailed-in appeal, they would have barely been left the time to train and fly. To balance this, NASA sometimes employed a machine — an "autopen" — that traced a pattern based on the astronauts' signatures onto photographs, books and other items sent in by the public. To this day, children (of all ages) from around the world write NASA for astronauts' autographs and continue to receive authentic and autopenned responses.

That's not to say that all NASA space collectibles are focused on the crewed missions. Mementos from the agency's unmanned efforts to explore the solar system and beyond have also been sought. Model and toy versions of planetary probes, such as the Mars rovers, flew off store shelves. Postage stamps celebrating the magnificent imagery captured by the Hubble Space Telescope were saved by more than just stamp collectors, but by those who desired a souvenir of the orbiting observatory.

When NASA was established in October 1958, so was the hobby of collecting NASA memorabilia. For 50 years, the public has celebrated the space agency through the commemorative items it has inspired. And as NASA looks forward to its next 50 years exploring space, so will the public seek to own a part of those achievements.

For a year-by-year tour of the first 50 years of space collectibles, click through to collectSPACE.com, a Houston-based website for space history enthusiasts.

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