Buying insurance isn’t easy when you’re about to shoot into space on top of a flaming rocket. The Apollo astronauts, unable to qualify for life insurance and not insured by NASA, resorted to “insurance autographs”.
Figuring that the autographs would be valuable enough to provide for their families if the men didn’t return, they signed these just before launch; expecting that the value would “skyrocket” in the event of their death. It was a good bet. The Apollo 11 autographs have sold for as much as $28,500 each.
Before they were set to go to the moon, they were in quarantine; during this time, they signed hundreds of autographs. They signed their names on envelopes containing various space-related images. The “covers” would, of course, become intensely valuable should they perish on the mission. They’re now often referred to as “Insurance autographs”.
To ensure the covers would hold maximum value, the crew put stamps on them and sent them in a package to a friend, who dumped them all in the mail so they would be postmarked July 16, 1969 – the day of the mission’s success – or its failure.
Fortunately, the trip went off without a hitch, and all three men lived long, healthy lives and remained alive until Neil Armstrong’s death a few days ago.
One astronaut supposedly had proper life insurance – and that was only because of an act of generosity when Lloyd’s of London underwriters, coordinated by the broker Crawley Warren (now Aon), offered a free US $1 million cover for the mission.