Here’s your chance to buy a picture from the “Flight of the Playboy Bunnies” (better known as the Apollo 12 mission).
One of the best NASA stories is also one of the least-known to the general public. Back in 1969, the Apollo 12 backup crew managed to secret various photos of playboy centerfolds into the Apollo 12 flight. These images included reduced-sized photos being affixed to lunar checklists (which were attached to the wrists of astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean) and a 4 x 6-inch image that was eventually velcroed to the inside of the cabin. Now, space enthusiasts can own the latter image.
A slew of NASA memorabilia is now up for auction, including the aforementioned topless playboy photo of DeDe Lind (Miss August, 1967). Bidding is starting at $1,000. Here’s the full item description from R.R. Auction:
Vintage color calendar photo of Playboy Playmate Miss August 1967, DeDe Lind, which was stowed away in the Apollo 12 command module Yankee Clipper during its November 1969 voyage to the moon. Measuring approximately 4.5 x 6.5, the topless image is an original taken from one of the 1969 calendars published by Playboy and features the month and year of the Apollo 12 mission-November 1969. Prior to the mission, it was affixed to a cardboard cue card and, unbeknownst to the crew, secreted onboard their spacecraft. Normal wear as one would expect from an object that made the approximately 475,000 mile round-trip journey to the moon and back, this flown iconic piece of 1960s pop culture still retains its Velcro strips which were used to affix it inside the spacecraft […]
The ‘flight of the Playboy bunnies’ has gone down in astronaut lore as one of the most iconic astronaut pranks. As fellow Apollo 12 astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean explored the lunar surface-with small black-and-white photocopied Playboy images pasted into the wrist cuff checklists of their spacesuits-Gordon was left alone onboard the command module to circle the moon. It was there, in the silence and loneliness of lunar orbit, that he discovered his surprise stowaway crew ‘mate.’ This cue card was affixed via Velcro strips to the inside of one of his command module lockers.
The winner of this particular auction will also receive a signed photo from Lind herself reading, “Pete and Al left me with a great Dick in lunar orbit!” For those of you unfamiliar with the Apollo 12 mission, Richard Gordon was the pilot who stayed behind while Conrad and Bean went down to the moon.
Source: io9
