May 12, 2005 - Sale 2043

Sale 2043 - Lot 11A

Price Realized: $ 4,600
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
AMERICA'S FIRST ASTRONAUTS (ASTRONAUTS.) Photograph Signed by the Mercury Seven: M. Scott Carpenter, L. Gordon Cooper, John Glenn, Virgil Grisson, Walter Schirra, Alan Shepard and "Deke" Slayton, and Inscribed to Society of Experimental Test Pilots President Drury W. Wood, Jr., photograph of all 7 standing with Wood and Ivan C. Kincheloe's widow at the Society's 1963 Award Banquet. Each astronaut has signed below his image, additionally Signed by Wood. Approximately 20x231/2 inches; mounted, some signatures a bit faded, a few minor creases. Santa Monica, 28 September 1963 (though signed later that year)

Additional Details



On 9 April 1959, NASA selected the first 7 American astronauts for the new Mercury space program from a field of 110 military pilots. Six of the 7 would go on to fly missions, including Shepard's 1961 Freedom 7 flight -- the first American flight into space. The Society of Experimental Test Pilots was founded in 1955 and began having an annual awards banquet in 1958. The Mercury 7 received the 1963 Kincheloe award for their accomplishments in flight testing. Material signed by all of America's original astronauts is quite scarce.