Neil Armstrong was appreciative, however as defined in his handwritten letter, it was too late. The Apollo 11 commander and his crewmates had already arrived at a design to signify the primary moon touchdown.
Armstrong’s note and the mission patch proposal that impressed it are up for public sale in Goldberg Cash & Collectibles’ Feb. 27 public sale in Los Angeles. The symbol artwork and first moonwalker’s reply are a part of the Clark C. McClelland assortment, an archive of astronaut autographs, cscale rocket fashions and flown memorabilia from the property of a NASA engineer who died in 2021.
“My father labored on lots of of manned and unmanned U.S. missions throughout his 34 years with NASA at Cape Canaveral in Florida,” stated Carrie Lane, one among McClelland’s daughters, in an announcement launched by Goldberg.
Although different gadgets from the gathering are estimated to promote for extra, McClelland’s makes an attempt to assist with designing an Apollo mission patch often is the most unusual items within the sale. Goldberg has grouped the vast majority of the ideas into one lot, which they’ve appraised at $700 to $1200.
Associated: Neil Armstrong: First man on the moon
“McClelland had a little bit of an artist in him and submitted emblem concepts to the assorted mission crews of Apollo and later the shuttle program,” the public sale catalog description for Lot 1017 reads. “McClelland submitted essentially the most designs for Apollo 11 and Apollo 12, nicely over a dozen every.”
There are additionally designs for Apollo 8, the primary mission to ship people across the moon, Apollo 9 and the mid-flight explosion-plagued Apollo 13, in addition to idea logos for rockets from when McClelland labored on the Martin Firm (later Martin-Marietta and in the present day Lockheed Martin).
One in every of McClelland’s pencil drawings for Apollo 11 reveals a round patch with the astronaut symbol at its heart flagged by the Mercury and Gemini program logos.
“This emblem reveals recognition of every step [of the] nationwide area program that has led to the Apollo 11’s touchdown,” McClelland wrote to the Apollo 11 crew in April 1969, three months earlier than their launch.
One other full-color idea depicts an American flag planted on the moon on the heart of a gumdrop-shaped emblem with the trajectory of the mission from Earth to the moon because the hand of god. The trail itself seems to be full of the lunar floor as seen from orbit and contains the Latin inscription, “Annuit Coeptis” (“Windfall Favors Our Undertakings”), as borrowed from the Nice Seal of the USA.
As Goldberg notes, McClelland’s “designs have been competing with so many others to win the favor of the assorted crews,” and none of his Apollo concepts have been accepted.
“We felt as if we wished our personal ideas integrated into the patch & have accomplished our design. I assumed you may like your renditions again,” wrote Armstrong earlier than writing out his identify (somewhat than including his signature).
Individually, Armstrong inscribed one among his early NASA portraits to McClelland, “with appreciation to your concepts.”
Equally, Apollo 11 command module pilot Michael Collins, who’s credited with arising with the eagle-centric idea for the Apollo 11 insignia, prolonged his thanks on an autographed photograph for McClelland’s “assistance on the Apollo XI mission & emblem.”
Each Armstrong’s and Collins’ signed pictures, along with a 3rd inscribed “with many thanks” by Buzz Aldrin, are included within the sale in one other lot (1154), which is estimated to promote for $1,200 to $1,500.
The Apollo 11 astronauts collaborated with a unique NASA worker, illustrator James Cooper, to develop Collins’ drawings right into a last design.
“We have been significantly happy with the symbol of our flight, depicting the U.S. eagle bringing the common image of peace from the Earth, from the planet Earth, to the moon, that image being the olive department,” stated Aldrin in a broadcast from area through the moon mission.
Associated: The moon: The whole lot it is advisable to learn about Earth’s companion
One further lot (1165, $400 to $600) offers a take a look at yet one more unsuccessful try by McClelland to design an Apollo patch. His Apollo 12 idea design makes use of the identical form and a few of the components from one among his rejected Apollo 11 emblems, however incorporates naval wings as a nod to the “all Navy crew.”
The border of the patch paintings was signed by the Apollo 12 astronauts, Charles Conrad, Alan Bean and Dick Gordon.
Although he by no means noticed any of his designs launch to the moon, McClelland did design (and have produced) a commemorative patch in reminiscence of the fallen STS-51L area shuttle Challenger crew. Lot 1017 contains his unique shade marker rendering and a embroidered instance of the 1986 emblem.
In whole, Goldberg Coins & Collectibles’ auction has greater than 200 tons with memorabilia from a few of the almost 40 area missions that McClelland labored.
Observe collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on X at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2025 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
