It’s difficult to comprehend, even after several decades, how revolutionary the first manned journey to the Moon was in 1969; it was the epitome of something absolutely unprecedented.

Insurance coverage that cover unforeseen circumstances or unfavourable outcomes are one of the things that are considered behind the scenes when planning these space missions.

Although this has always been a challenging field, it should come as no surprise that insurers were hesitant to offer a policy—or, if they did, it was for an absurdly high sum of money—when a moon landing had never been accomplished successfully.

According to reports, the astronauts on the expedition were unable to locate affordable life insurance plans that would provide coverage in the event that they perished during the journey, leaving their families vulnerable in the event that something went wrong.

Thus, they devised a quite remarkable solution. Prior to the flight, Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins, and Neil Armstrong reportedly started working long hours by signing their names on envelopes.

They were aware that their names would become well-known even if their mission failed.

In an interview with NPR, space historian and collector Robert Pearlman of collectspace.com stated: “These astronauts had been signing autographs since the day they were announced as astronauts, and they knew even though eBay didn’t exist back then, that there was a market for such things.”

These signed envelopes were given to a friend before they left on their mission. The friend’s job was fairly straightforward: on key days of the Moon mission, such as the takeoff, Moon landing, and return to Earth, they went to the post office to have the envelopes stamped, making them even more valuable because of the date.

After that, the envelopes were given to the astronauts’ families, who could then sell them if necessary—in effect, a homemade insurance policy of their own making.

Fortunately, their families never had to sell these autographs, but they are now prized collectibles.

Pearlman admitted to NPR that one of the envelopes can cost up to $30,000.

When the story got posted to Reddit this week it raised some eyebrows, with the top comment summing things up: “Crazy. You think the government would have underwritten something since it was such an outlandish endeavor.”

Another commenter agreed, saying, “That’s both incredibly sad and incredibly smart.”

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