> some said astronauts should not be allowed to reap personal profits from NASA missions.<p>That's an interesting ethical question. At what point is it ok for someone who got paid by the government to do a job ok to make extra money <i>because</i> of that fact.<p>These days most Presidents get to write books about their time in the White House and make money. Buzz Aldrin still goes to cons and signs autographs for money.<p>So where does the line belong?
Fascinating. I'd never heard this.<p>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.
I have an official flight cover from the challenger space shuttle.<p>These covers didn't make it to the moon, but they flew on the shuttle and were officially sanctioned.<p>They are a plentiful and inexpensive piece of history - you can get them on ebay for about $20 (search for "STS-8 cover" or similar)
why has the title been changed from "covers" (which is what they were) to "stamp" which is a less specific form of what they were? Why are we not just using the article title?
TIL what a "postal cover" was, and how "cancelled envelopes" work.<p>Which made me realize how little I've ever used the postal services for actual letters in my life. My generation (late 80s / early 90s) must be one of the last to interact with the postal system when personally sending letters to people, rather than just parcels.<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_cover" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Event_cover</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancellation_(mail)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cancellation_(mail)</a>
The early astronauts made all kinds of extra on the side. Sponsored cars, magazine exclusives and various similar shenanigans. I didn't understand then (which I'm old enought to remember), and I do not understand now why the stamp incident was singled out and hammered so severely.<p>Davis Scott had handled himself superbly during his two previous flights, and Apollo 15 was in all relevant respects a huge success, most visibly so for premiering the lunar rover and bringing back the genesis rock.
They recently tried to auction one at 22.000€, but apparently it was too much. Still for sale, though.<p><a href="https://www.eppli.com/de/Product/DetailByNo?no=981734" rel="nofollow">https://www.eppli.com/de/Product/DetailByNo?no=981734</a>
From the title, I assume that when NASA realised they couldn't meet the Apollo 15 launch schedule they simply farmed the problem off to the Postal Service, by covering the rocket with stamps?