Tom Stafford's flown Apollo 8 Robbins medal, measuring approximately 1.5″ x 1.25″, featuring a raised design of the mission insignia on the face. The reverse is engraved with the mission dates, "Dec. 21-27, 1968." The medal is serial numbered "251" and stamped with the Robbins hallmark. Condition is mint state, with mild tarnishing. Accompanied by a signed letter of provenance from Tom Stafford, in part: "Enclosed with this letter is one of the few artifacts carried onboard the spacecraft from man's first trip beyond the orbit of the earth—an Apollo 8 medallion. This medallion is one of the Apollo flight medallions made by the Robbins Company for use within the NASA Astronaut Corps as treasured mementos from flights we all made tremendous efforts to accomplish. The Apollo 8 crew of Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders were the first humans to leave the earth's gravitational sphere of influence and travel to the moon. They entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve 1968 and made 10 orbits of the moon through Christmas Day. This medallion is a symbol of the historic accomplishments of the Apollo 8 crew, being onboard the flight and traveling to the moon and back. The Apollo 8 flight success permitted the next flight, Apollo 9, to carry out tests of the Lunar Module (LM). Apollo 9 cleared the way for my flight of Apollo 10 to test the LM in the lunar environment. All these flights then enabled the first lunar landing by Apollo 11 on July 20, 1969." A fantastic flown medallion carried on man's historic first mission to the moon.
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