While there were many variations during the course of each build, the most easily recognized is the change to the appearance of the model's round base following the Apollo 11 landing. The Lunar Module contractor models progressed through several distinct phases of construction. Today, ten or twenty times that price might be a bargain basement starting point for a wreck of a model that can often sell at auction for thousands of dollars in one case, almost $40,000.
Models also graced the desks of Grumman staff at one time they were offered for $29.95 in the employee shops. The model was often included in Apollo astronauts' official portraits.
Viewed by many today to be the most striking of all the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo era models, these replicas were given to dignitaries, subcontractors, astronauts and flight directors, among others.
Lunar lander model manuals#
It's said that President Richard Nixon ordered a fully functional LM buried in a Long Island landfill, along with the blueprints, production records, engineering documents, and manuals - all from Grumman.īeyond what resides in museums, one of the best ways to get an appreciation for this spacecraft is owning a LM contractor's model. Unfortunately, relatively little Lunar Module paraphernalia remains as a testimonial to this lofty position, in either the public or private domain. As Neil Armstrong is surely aware, history holds a special place for "the first". Such is the mantle history has reserved for Grumman's Lunar Module. Until we return to the Moon or go elsewhere, the LM will stand alone having delivered men to another world. Ugly yet beautiful, functional, and incredibly engineered, the Lunar Module (LM) completed its mission beyond anyone's and everyone's wildest expectations. Instead, it was destined to remain in the beautiful, yet airless and unforgiving heavens.Īt the Grumman Aerospace Corporation in Bethpage, New York, engineers became visionaries, creating a creature like nothing ever seen. Created to fullfill man's dream of touching another world, it could never return home. The Apollo Lunar Module occupies a unique niche in history as mankind's first true spaceship.
The Grumman Lunar Module and its Contractor Model CollectSPACE - models - "Magnificent Creation: Repairing and Restoring the Lunar Module Model"
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