Apollo 17 photos of lunar maneuvers

After three days of travel, and conducting many experiments, the crew of Apollo 17 performs lunar orbit insertion maneuvers that place them firmly in orbit around the moon as they prepare for the last lunar landing of the Apollo program. The crew also conducts lunar orbit photography and observation activities as well. Visit the mission flown $2 bill of Commander Gene Cernan in the gallery section of the Jefferson Space Museum.

Earthrise over the lunar surface on December 10, 1972, as seen from the lunar module Challenger. The flown $2 in the Jefferson Space Museum is stowed away in Gene's PPK in the lunar module, and will descend to the lunar surface the next day.

The Apollo 17 landing site in the valley of Taurus Littrow as photographed on December 10, 1972, from the command module America.

Cernan $2 bill has traveled on three flights

This coming Wednesday, December 7, 2011, will mark the 39th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 17-- the last of NASA's manned lunar missions. That mission launched in dramatic fashion at night, lighting up the skies over Florida, to bring to close one of the greatest chapters of US exploration. Aboard that mission was Commander Eugene Cernan -- the last man to leave his boot print on the moon. For luck, and in memory and homage to his father, Gene also took with him a $2 bill that flew on his other flights --- and was given to him by his father to fly on his first space flight. It is amazing to think that we have not returned to the moon in all those years…but, you can visit the bill that historically flew with and landed on the moon by visiting it at the museum!

Apollo 17 Launches on December 7, 1972 for the last manned lunar mission of Apollo - on board is Gene Cernan's GT9A and A10 flown $2 bill, which was given to him by his father after his father carried it for years in his wallet for luck. The bill is now a part of the Jefferson Space Museum collection. View it here.

Great post from Paul Fraser Collectibles

A fantastic new post about the museum just hit Paul Fraser Collectibles wonderful blog. The article is a very nice tribute and overview of the museum, how I started the collection, and my interests in the bill. You will enjoy the other article's on Paul's site, too, so make sure you poke around -- especially in the space collectibles sections. UPDATE: And they did an expanded version of the article, with more pictures of the bills, and more background on the collection. Read this version here.

Mentioned by money blogger Tom Chao

Noted collector and paper money blogger Tom Chao wrote about the new Jefferson Space Museum on his blog site. You can see the post by clicking here. Tom's blog is great! If you are at all interested in Paper money, you really need to check it out. Also his famous world paper money gallery, which can be found here. Thanks for the blog post, Tom!