astronauts are people who willingly put themselves In Harm's Way in order to advance the human species their work requires courage and dedication and skill and it's generally considered to be selfless work you don't become an astronaut for your own aggrandisement you do it for your nation or for the whole species and thus the disappointment in the summer of 1972 when a scandal broke out over the behavior of some of NASA's astronauts the Apollo 15 postal cover Scandal is seems little remembered today but it rocked the nation at the time and it destroyed the careers of men who had been hailed as national heroes it isn't easy to go to the moon the website of the planetary Society estimates that the total cost of the Apollo program alone at $257 billion in 20120 adjusted dollars as only 12 people have walked on the moon that makes an adjusted cost of around $21 billion per person given the average weight of the lunar module that figures out to roughly $1.2 million per pound carried to the Moon that is a lot of taxpayer dollars and it says something about a peculiar perk of space flight while astronauts were paid reasonable salaries Apollo 11 Mission Commander Neil Armstrong's annual salary was roughly $200,000 in adjusted dollars each of the 12 who landed on the moon were allowed to carry roughly half a pound of personal items which with simple math accounted for roughly $600,000 in transportation cost in addition to the two half pound kits carried by the astronauts in the lunar module larger personal preference kits or PPKs up to 5 lbs each were allowed all three Mission astronauts to be carried on the mission but not to the moon in the larger Command Module you can certainly quibble with these numbers the Apollo program would likely have cost the same without the so-called personal preference kits but it's hard to deny that carrying a half pound of personal items to the Moon in back is a perk that few can claim NASA began allowing personal preference kits with the geminy program the purpose of the PPK was NASA policy explained for the astronauts personal use or for use by them as personal gifts the idea was to carry small items of limited monetary value which would gain significance for having been to space for the geminy program all personal items had to fit into a 6x7 in nylon drawstring bag although the size of the bag was changed to 8x4 by 2 in for the Apollo program the contents were not announced by NASA but the astronauts were allowed to say what was in the bag at their own discretion on gmany 6a in 1965 astronaut Wally shir's PPK carried Navy Wings a 33 degree Masonic ring a 1950 decoin a dim siiz momento five seized momentos a miniature giny spacecraft a Florida hunting license 20 gold medals five silver medals various flags and 15 Mission patches astronauts had to develop their list which had to be approved by the director of crew flight operations who was responsible for ensuring that the items fit in the bag and were within weight limitations moreover the policy was that items are not to be used for or given for any commercial or fundraising purposes prohibited items with the PPK the policy stated are those that might create subsequent problems with respect to flight safety commercialism personal aggrandisement or gain derogatory character and good taste outside of the PPK the policy stipulated all other personal items are prohibited yet astronauts did not always follow the rules in March 1965 astronauts Gus grman John Young smuggled a corned beef sandwich onto gmany 3 they lunched on the sandwich and it seemed a fine funny thing the United Press International reported but the dangerous breach of discipline prompted a congressional investigation andess admitted that there was a risk that breadcrumbs could interfere with the operation of the onboard flight equipment NASA promised Congress that they would tighten policy and Gris and young were reprimanded griam wrote that after the flight our superiors at Nasa let us know in no uncertain terms that non-man rated corned beef sandwiches were out for future space missions astronauts broke the rules again in December the same year with astronauts Wally Shira and Tom Stafford managing to bring a set of tinkling bells and a small four note harmonica on board gmany 6A which they used to play Jingle Bells after reporting citing an unidentified flying object that was apparently Santa Claus but the prank went without discipline with the UPI quoting a space agency official that I'm sure it was not a case of smuggling then came Apollo 15 the fourth Apollo mission in 1971 had ambitious goals was the first of three extended missions with an upgraded capsule capable of a 75h hour stay having already served is the backup crew for Apollo 12 mission Commander David Scott lunar module pilot James Irwin and Command Module pilot Alfred won had time for more science training and the mission was to dedicate more time to sample collection Scott and Irwin would have a far greater ability to conduct these experiments as Apollo 15 would be the first to include the motorized lunar ring vehicle or moon buggy the mission went spectacularly a rousing success that not only set several records but reinvigorated public interest in the space program but a NASA release in September of 1972 put a stain on an otherwise nearly Flawless Mission since the mission a number of questions have been raised concerning the propriety of the crew's conduct especially in relation to the disposition of personal souvenirs and motos that is Apollo 15 became a scandal because of PPK the Scandal broke in June the Chicago Sun Times reported on June 26 100 envelopes taken to the Moon by the crew of Apollo 15 were later sold by a German stamp dealer for more than $150,000 at the time Nessa spokesman Jack Riley told the times that the crew had not profited and will not profit from the sale the dealer Herman seagler for his part had refused to say where he got the letters or even if he paid for them the matter was under investigation but the letters had been signed by all three astronauts and their signatures had been notorized by a NASA employee their participation though was later confirmed the New York Times reported on July 16th the national Aeronautics and Space Administration announced that a 3-we investigation had disclosed that a West German stamp dealer Herman a Seager had parlayed last year's Apollo 15 moon landing into $1 15,350 profit and he had done so with the aid of the Apollo 15 astronauts as the Scandal made the newspapers and shocked the public all three astronauts as well as several NASA administrators were called into a 5-hour closed door meeting with a senate investigative committee the items that issue were called postal covers or printed envelopes such covers were commonly taken in fact an envelope with a special cancellation stamp had been sent by the United States Post Office for cancellation on the moon a total of 243 postal covers had been authorized many special envelopes that the astronauts had within policy given as souvenirs to friends and NASA employees in addition 144 had been carried by Wen in his PPK these had had their stamps canceled of board the recovery ship USS Okawa and were signed by all three astronauts while authorized these covers represented an issue they had been designed by F Herrick a friend of warden's who was a stamp collector Warden had given 40 to Herrick and asked him to hold on to 60 more for safekeeping but herck quickly sold three and sent others to Europe for sale was quick sale so soon after the mission garnered public attention just as concerning the investigation found that herriet advised the Apollo 15 crew to carry first day covers and to then store them safely for some years during which they would become valuable collector items this came dangerously close to the prohibition against using PPK items for commercial or fundraising purchase although the 1972 NASA statement noted to date no information has been developed indicating that there were agreements or Arrangements between herck and Wen whereby Wen was to have received anything of value from any sale of the covers by Herrick but there was a larger concern the report noted that 398 other covers part of a large order of cached covers paid for by a privately employed public relations man with a wide circle of friends among the NASA astronauts had been carried aboard in the pocket of David Scott's space suit without authorization moreover the investigation determined that the public relations man H Walter irman had been contacted by a European stamp dealer named Herman seagler who concluded that special stamped envelopes carried on a lunar Mission would have significant commercial value the report explained that Ironman proposed to Scott and letter to wen and Irwin that the astronauts carry 100 special covers to the moon for him and in return Ironman offered a monetary consideration approximately $7,000 a piece the three astronauts had additionally decided to bring 200 more although NASA concluded that the total number was altogether 398 for their own use in anticipation of the deal the report found that hourman opened a $7,000 savings account in a German bank for each of the astronauts with their consent the damning conclusion according to the report was that there was apparent intent of the Apollo 15 crew to gain personally from the exercise of their astronaut privileges it was a terrible embarrassment what NASA called poor judgment the New York Times hearkened back to one of the worst scandals in baseball writing the only thing missing was a small tearful dirty faed boy in the hall crying Say It Ain't So Dave Say It Ain't So but the situation wasn't completely simple while the covers were not listed as Bing in Scott's preference kit the investigation noted had they been so listed they would probably have been routinely approved for inclusion in a preference kit as had the 243 authorized covers noted above the investigation also found that it is the contention of the astronauts that there was to be no commercialization or advertising of these covers and that nothing would be done with them until after completion of the Apollo program and that when the public sale in Germany came to the attention of the astronauts Scott telephone Iran to request that sales be stopped and the covers returned moreover in February of 1972 the astronauts decided not to accept the $7,000 in the German bank accounts and Scott took steps to assure that the funds were returned to Iran the astronuts further rejected an offer by Ironman to provide them with a commemorative stamp album in Leu of the payments but in the course of the investigation they discovered two other irregularities NASA reported that the Apollo 15 crew had desired to make a personal private symbolic gesture commemorating all deceased astronauts and cosmonauts this was a memorial placed on the moon with a plaque and a small custommade sculpture called the Fallen astronaut a 2018 edition of slate magazine writes it at 12:18 a.m. Gren me time on August 2nd 1971 Commander David Scott of Apollo 15 placed a 3 and 1/2 in tall aluminum sculpture onto the dusty surface of a small crater near his parked lunar rover at that moment the moon transformed from an airless ball of rock into the largest exhibition space in the known universe Scott regarded the moment as a tribute to the heroic astronauts and cosmonauts who had given their lives in the Space Race the statue of Memorial had been approved but there turned out to be a problem Nessa writes that the crew's clear understanding with Belgian sculptor Paul Van hunk was that there was to be no commercial or personal exploitation of this Memorial hyunk on the other hand did not share that understanding slates writes that van hyunk was thrilled that that his art was pointing away to a human Destiny beyond Earth and expected that he would soon be bigger than Picasso in May of 1972 Scott found out that 950 replicas of the Fallen astronaut figurine signed by the sculptor had been advertised for sale by the wad Galler of New York at a price of $750 a piece under pressure from NASA vanon hyunk pulled the sculptures off the market additionally it was determined that Scott had taken on board two unauthorized time pieces a wristwatch and a stopwatch Scott had agreed to evaluate these time pieces for the manufacturer at the request of a friend and thinking they might be useful particularly for the possible emergency timing of a manually controlled propulsion maneuver Scott carried them on the mission but without prior authorization as with the covers and the sculpture the appearance of benefiting from his position was the problem NASA the report says has deliberately withheld the name of the manufacturer of the time pieces to avoid commercialization of this unauthorized action the investigation resulted in a significant penalty considering as well their ultimate rejection of such personal gain Scott Wen and Irwin have been formally reprimanded their official efficiency reports as Military Officers reflect a formal finding of lack of judgment these two actions result in severe career penalties whether the astronauts remain in the federal service or not although the agency told the New York Times astronauts are under a period of extreme stress in the months preceding a flight to the moon the times wrote that the penalties were the most severe ever Meed out o to the Penalty the three were unlikely to ever get another flight assignment Irwin retired Scott and Wen were transferred out of the astronaut program to other NASA positions but was the severity of the penalty Fair Scott said in an interview in Smithsonian Magazine in 2011 there had been a similar incident the previous year when the Apollo 14 crew allegedly made a deal with Franklin min to bring silver medallions into space but NASA kind of smoothed that over because the astronaut involved was Alan Shepard the first American in space who was a little more famous than we were but he said those postal covers were sold a couple of months after the flight and quickly became public knowledge so I think NASA management felt they had to do something and it was not quite as simple as it seems while the items were specifically intended to be of low monitary value and not used for commercial purposes that's a fine line astronauts were not supposed to profit from their position but of course many have since made money from writing Memoirs or signing autographs or giving speeches and PPK items have turned profits Buzz Aldren signed PPK bag from Apollo 11 just the bag not the items inside sold at auction in 2015 for $50,000 Neil Armstrong bought a few significant bits of aviation history in his PPK on Apollo 11 a biographer later wrote he is most clear about and most proud of the pieces of the historic right flyer that he took to the Moon Under under a special arrangement with the US Air Force Museum in Dayton he took in his lunar module PPK a piece of wood from the wri brothers 1903 airplanes left propeller and a piece of Muslim fabric aped by 13 in from its upper left wing the items remained with Armstrong and were not used for personal gain or commercialization but Armstrong passed in 2012 and in 2018 many of the items in his personal collection were sold at auction a 1 and 1/4 in square fabric from the right flyer that had been taken to the Moon sold for 96,97 overall the pieces of his memorabilia sold for over 145 million proceeds went to his two sons who told the Cincinnati Inquirer that some of the proceeds would be used to build a charitable organization called Vantage Earth Foundation further investigations found out that 15 other NASA astronauts had violated standing policy by making deals for the sale of postal covers that have been taken on NASA missions there were various suspensions and reprimands although most of them were allowed to stay with the astronaut program but one exception was Jack Swagger the hero pilot of the Command Module of the ill- fated Apollo 13 mission initially Swagger denied that he had anything to do with postal covers and when it was found that he lied and had taken money his flight career was ended NASA changed its policy in many different ways astronauts still carry personal preference kits today but among other restrictions by federal law they're not allowed to carry any philatelic items in them in a bit of exoneration in 1983 Wen sued to have the postal covers that NASA had confiscated returned the justice department determined that the government had no right to contest the claim some of those returned cards have since been sold for as much as $115,000 in an irony the watch that Dave Scott had worn unauthorized turned out to be very special because all other watches that were worned by the astronauts of the Apollo program on their missions which were speed Masters belonged to NASA but that one watch that Scott had taken which was a bull of a Time piece was personal property and thus is the only watch that has been worn on the moon that could be sold and it was at auction in 2015 for 1, 625,000 while there was clearly a lapse of judgment by these astronauts the question of whether the penalty was fair remains today but science author Andrew Chen wrote in his 1995 book a man on the moon no matter what the astronauts thought of this stamp Scandal the damage had been done because the myth of the perfect astronaut had crumbled I hope you enjoyed watching this episode of the history guy and if you did please feel free to like And subscribe and share the history guy with your friends and if you also believe that history deserves to be remember then you can support the history guy as a member on YouTube a supporter on our community and locals or as a patron on patreon you can also check out our great merchandise shop for book a special message from the history guy 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