Official NASA portrait photos of the Apollo 13 crew: (Left to right) Commander Jim Lovell, Lunar Module Pilot Fred Haise, and Command Module Pilot John “Jack” Swigert, Jr. Also pictured is Ken Mattingly, who was to be the CMP until exposure to rubella (the measles) and was removed from flight two days before launch, replaced by Swigert. Mattingly would go on to fly to the moon on Apollo 16.
APOLLO 13: Flown $1 Bill
Launch Date: April 11 | Splashdown Date: April 17, 1970
About the Provenance
This bill was acquired directly from the personal collection of Ray C. Malone, who was the NASA Crew Station Engineer assigned to the Flight Crew Support Team at Kennedy Space Center providing Flight Crew Directorate Representative (FCDR) support for the command module at the time. In addition to his FCDR duties, Ray was also responsible for packing and stowing all the flight crew equipment. This bill, one of a set of 13 dollar bills Ray asked the crew to sign and to fly for him on his behalf, remained in Ray’s possession from 1970 until it was acquired by the JSM in September of 2022.
About the Bill
As a favor to Ray, this is one of 13 one dollar bills that the crew took to the moon on their historic flight. It was packed in PPK 1110 along with other approved personal items being taken for ground support personnel. Ray and his team later stowed this PPK along with all the crew’s other equipment and mission items aboard the Apollo 13Command Module Odyssey. Given the last minute swap out of the crew, very few items exist that flew on the mission with the signatures of all 4 crew members — the three who flew as well as Mattingly. Also, this is the only one of the 13 bills that Swigert signed using “John” instead of “Jack” as his first name. It’s a unique flown memento of this dramatic, near-death mission.
An image of the official flight certification letter of this lunar orbit flown $1 bill from Ray Malone.
A rare photo of Ray Malone (left) and Ann Montgomery (right) in the white room atop Launch Complex 39A examining items to be stowed aboard the Apollo 15 spacecraft just prior to launch. It exemplifies Ray’s work in his FCDR role and responsibilities of packing and stowing Apollo mission crew equipment. NASA issued photo 108-KSC-71PC-52B.