sights and faces

crookedindifference:

Homemade Insurance for the Apollo Astronauts

No life insurance company would touch the first astronauts. But the Apollo crews knew that they needed to do something that would leave their families in good shape were the mission to go badly.

The answer was provided by NASA in the form of ‘Insurance Covers’, as seen here, a number of which were given to every crew member and subsequently signed by every astronaut involved, as close to launch as possible. Its value would instantly be high, but would no doubt sky-rocket (no pun intended) should the astronauts never return; the deceased’s surviving family then at least safe in the knowledge that in future they could cash-in their makeshift insurance policy if required.

These covers continued through Apollo 16. Then, the government started providing insurance for astronauts: any astronaut who was part of the military was eligible for insurance cover through the military.

Discussion here suggests that the Apollo 15 crew sold off a whole lot of unauthorized insurance covers.