One Risky Step
The Apollo Program was conceived in early 1960 during the Eisenhower administration, as a follow-up to Project Mercury. The mercury capsule was able to carry a single astronaut on an orbital mission of earth. The Apollo capsule would be designed to carry three astronauts opening up possibilities for ferrying crews to space stations, orbiting the moon, and eventually, lunar landings.
The space race was already moving fast. So fast, that the Apollo program was put into action before Project Mercury had even gotten a single astronaut into orbit. The pressure got turned even higher on the American space program on April 12, 1961, when Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin become the first human to fly in space. The US was falling behind. And to those in charge (John F. Kennedy at this point) falling behind was unacceptable.
Funding for both Project Mercury, and the Apollo Project was increased, and the best and brightest minds in America all went to work to take back the lead in the space race. Sometimes, being fast is not the most important thing. During one of the first manned tests of the Apollo 1 capsule, and electrical fire broke out in the command module. As you may imagine, in an atmosphere of 100% oxygen a fire spreads fast. The intense heat spiked the pressure inside the capsule and prevented the escape hatch from opening, ad it was designed to swing inward. As a result of the tragedy which claimed the lives of all three crew members NASA removed flammable materials from cabins and space suits. Changed the air mixture in the cabin. And switched the door to open outwards.
As tragic as the accident was, NASA was no stranger to the dangers of space flight. Up to that point, they had already lost several astronauts in various training missions. Space flight is extremely hazardous. It takes a special person to want to do it.
Astronauts tend to be a bit on the adventurous side. They are often somewhat daring. And they are no stranger to the adrenaline that comes with space flight. They are also extremely intelligent. They have engineering degrees. They have thousands of hours of specialized training. They possess top notch critical thinking skills. It takes time to acquire the skillset to become an astronaut, so it is common for them to have families and children by the time they are ready to man a space flight. Naturally, before they boarded a rocket bound for the moon, most astronauts wanted to ensure that their families would be taken care of in the event of tragedy.
The perils of spaceflight are well documented. With the amount of precision involved in the millions of parts required to make a spaceship fly, accidents are bound to happen. NASA knows that. Astronauts know that. Unfortunately, life insurance companies also know that. So, when the crew of the Apollo 7 mission attempted to get coverage prior to their flight, they found they were denied. A disheartening, but not altogether unexpected result.
A month prior to any flight, astronauts enter quarantine. Getting sick in space is not ideal. It was in quarantine, that the crew of Apollo 7 hatched a plan. In the 1960’s Astronauts were nothing short of national celebrities. The pilots realized that due to their celebrity status, one of their most valuable possessions was their own name. in Autograph form. They also realized that their signature was more valuable if affixed to NASA memorabilia. They could add even more value by attaching a specific date to the item, say the launch date. And most of all, their signatures would become immensely more valuable, in the event they did not return home.
So, to put their plan into action, the astronauts spent much of their quarantine downtime signing space related postcards. Those postcards would then be given to friends who would take them to a post office on the day of the launch to get a postmark, then be delivered to the families of the astronauts. In the event the crew did not return home safely, their families could sell the postcards in order to pay for the expenses of life, send their children to college etc. Essentially those postcards could do all the things that life insurance could have done, if they had been able to get it.
The good news is that the Apollo Program saw no further fatal accidents, and the postcards, or “covers”, as the astronauts came to call them were ever needed. Unlike life insurance however, when these went unneeded, they still had good value. Some of them sell for as much as $30,000 at auction.
As far as I am aware, none of you reading this are astronauts. The vast majority of you are probably “insurable” as the life insurers would say. Life insurance is a very simple decision. If you have people who depend on your ability to make an income, you need life insurance. If you don’t have anyone depending on you, then you shouldn’t bother. If you do need insurance, look for term life insurance only. Term life insurance is simple insurance. If you die during a specified period, your beneficiaries receive money. Term insurance is by far the least expensive type of insurance. When it comes to life insurance the best-case scenario is that your policy is a complete waste of money, so I always recommend you waste as little as possible.