Poster, NASA, Manned Flight Awareness

This poster depicts drawn portraits of the three astronauts from Apollo 7 with their signatures: Walter “Wally” Shirra, Donn F. Eisle and R. Walter “Walt” Cunningham. The main text reads, “Precious Human Cargo / Our lives are in your hands. / The Apollo Astronauts” At the bottom of the poster is a box with the NASA label for spacecraft components in transit, “Critical Space Item / Handle with Extreme Care.

During the Apollo program, people produced components at companies around the United States and in a few foreign countries. To assemble the giant Saturn V rockets and Apollo spacecraft, and ensure the safe return of the astronauts, NASA needed to ship spacecraft parts safely. It was imperative that each part arrive without damage. The portraits of the astronauts reiterated that safety and care were required to keep them alive.

NASA’s Manned Flight Awareness, a program begun in 1963, and later renamed Space Flight Awareness, created posters to enhance employee motivation for job quality and flight safety within NASA and its contractors.