Wooden mockup of the Hasselblad 500 camera with a pistol grip and a detachable mockup of a long telephoto lens, painted black with silver accents, and bearing a metal tag on the side: "Grumman Aircraft Eng. Corp., 106257." Fully assembled, the overall dimensions are 24″ x 10.5″ x 3.75″. In very good to fine condition, with a few surface chips and dings.
The first Hasselblad 500C cameras were used on the last two Project Mercury missions—MA-8 and MA-9—in 1962 and 1963, and subsequently used throughout Project Gemini. They captured some of the earliest, most iconic images of Americans in space. Hasselblad continued to provide cameras to NASA throughout the Apollo program, including those used on the lunar surface. This mockup was presumably used as a practice tool or prototype by Grumman, the prime contractor for the development of the Apollo Lunar Module.
