FLOWN Apollo XIV Back up crew patch

Sale 1967 - Lot 207

Price Realized: $ 5,060

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 7,000

PROPERTY OF GENE CERNAN FLOWN Apollo XIV Back-up crew patch. A 4 inch diameter slightly elliptical cloth patch with the names of the Apollo 14 back-up crew: Cernan, Evans, and Engle. They were the first and only Apollo back-up crew to have a patch. Np: 1971

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Designed as a "gotcha" for Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, the patch illustrates two Warner Brothers cartoon characters. As Wile E. Coyote rockets up from earth with a gray beard representing the "three rookies" of Shepard , Roosa, and Mitchell (none had ever made an orbital flight) he finds that he is too late to beat the Road Runner who is already on the Moon with a U.S. Flag and a "1st Team" banner with a "Beep Beep" greeting. The gray beard was a knock on Shepard's age for he was one of the oldest men to fly in space to that date. The "1st team" was the back-up crew's nickname.
The back-up crew made sure this very patch and several others were hidden throughout the Apollo 14 Command and Lunar Modules. As Shepard, Roosa, and Mitchell opened up compartments or manuals, they would find these patches floating free. Shepard was noted for his comments of "Beep Beep Your Ass" during training and on a private communications loop during the flight of "Tell Cernan, Beep Beep Your Ass!".
With a Typed Letter Signed by Cernan that allows the patch to be mounted between paragraphs of descriptive text and a unflown Apollo 14 crew emblem decal that illustrates similarities and differences between the two designs.