FLOWN ON APOLLO 13 EMLBELM CREW MISSION PATCH WITH LOVELL LOA & LAUNCH INVITATION

This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/12/2020

This year is the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 13 flight. From Wikipedia –

“Apollo 13 is a 1995 American space docudrama film directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks, Kevin Bacon, Bill Paxton, Gary Sinise, and Ed Harris. The screenplay by William Broyles Jr. and Al Reinert dramatizes the aborted 1970 Apollo 13 lunar mission and is an adaptation of the book Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13 by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger. The film depicts astronauts Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise aboard Apollo 13 for America's third Moon landing mission. En route, an on-board explosion deprives their spacecraft of most of its oxygen supply and electric power, forcing NASA's flight controllers to abort the Moon landing, and turning the mission into a struggle to get the three men home safely.”

Offered is an actual FLOWN embroidered Apollo XIII mission patch, 4 inches in diameter, featuring the mission insignia with three horses traveling from the Earth to the Moon with the Sun in the background. “Ex Luna, Scientia” is Latin for “From the Moon, Knowledge.”
Evidently, flight Commander, Jim Lovell brought several of these patches up in space with him and sold many of them years later. However, this patch was sent to one of his best friends from high school as a gift. He writes him only 6 weeks after their return on NASA letterhead.
Extraordinary content.
“One of these days I am going to be long enough in Washington to come over and see you. That will be the day when I can see over the top of my desk and I finally hear no more about the problems of Apollo 13.
Enclosed please find a patch of Apollo 13. This patch was flown onboard the spacecraft.
Hope to see you soon.
Jim”
This letter was enclosed in an expensive picture frame for years (we pulled it out). The patch is affixed to the letterhead; however, it can be removed (if you remove the patch, there will be a big outline of the patch on the letter). This letter documents the patch. Also included is an invitation/pass for the launch from the original recipient.