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– A new online archive presents the original guides to Apollo 11's historic landing mission: 50-year-old press kits.
ApolloPressKits.com, hosted by David Meerman Scott, provides free access to high-quality scans of over three dozen press kits prepared by companies, contractors and governments, who have documented various aspects of the expedition 1969. From NASA to Stouffer & # 39; s, via IBM and TWA Airlines, the archives detail mission milestones and menus, guidance software and guided tours.
"I started collecting Apollo 11 press kits that were published by the subcontractors because they were a crossroads of two of the things that matter in my life," said Scott, strategist marketing and public relations, which is also a huge Apollo. passionate. "Once I realized that I probably had the most complete set of press kits for the Apollo 11 mission in the world, with more than 40 different press kits, I decided to share them with collectors. , academics, graphic design enthusiasts and old photographs, as well as public relations professionals ".
Scott, co-author of the 2014 book "Marketing the Moon: The Sale of the Apollo Lunar Program" (MIT Press), organized the Apollo 11 press kits on his new website in seven categories, including the official problems of The NASA; kits describing activities on Earth, during launch and on the moon; kits dedicated to the spacecraft; and press materials on the coverage and celebration of the nine-day mission.
Some of the press kits are well known; For example, the NASA kit has been reissued as a commemorative publication. Other kits are familiar to space history enthusiasts, including the North American Rockwell Apollo Spacecraft News Reference (now Boeing), which allowed to delve into the details of lunar modules. , service and command Apollo.
And then there are the unexpected press kits that detail the sometimes surprising contributions to Apollo 11 by consumer-oriented companies.
"Stouffer's provided the meals taken by the astronauts while they were in [post-flight] Quarantine at the lunar laboratory! Of course, this is a minor aspect of Apollo missions, but for Stouffer's, it was a marketing opportunity, "Scott said in an interview with collectSPACE.
Similarly, Omega promoted his Speedmaster as an "astronaut's watch" and Fisher announced that his "new single space pen" was already being used on Soviet Apollo and Soyuz flights. Hasselblad chose to wait until the end of the Apollo 11 mission to showcase the photos taken by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins using his cameras.
Even the former Trans World Airlines, better known as the TWA, has published a brochure advertising public tours that she was organizing for NASA at the John F. Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
In addition to press releases and fact sheets, some of the Apollo 11 contractors have taken a more creative approach to their media.
"I particularly like computer-based cardboard calculators created by several contractors," Scott said. "For example, the North American company Rockwell produced an Apollo mileage and speed converter that allowed the following media members to convert data such as those expressed in feet per second to NASA audio streams in kilometers per hour. , which are more easily understood by their readers. "
Grumman, NASA's main contractor for the lunar module, inspires "Gray's Anatomy" (the text book, not the TV show) and produces a dissection rich in images of its lunar lander, using translucent pages to take off the layers of the spaceship.
"I am fascinated by the way entrepreneurs have lovingly created these materials to tie their business to the epic of Apollo 11. I imagine that any company was proud to work on Apollo "Scott said. "It is also interesting to note that many subcontractors also provided the US military during the Vietnam War, so the good news of Apollo could have offset the negativity associated with the war in the end of the 1960s ".
Unfortunately, said Scott, archived documents on ApolloPressKits.com represent a near-gone format.
"Few companies are now publishing paper press kits – it's a lost art," Scott said. "Of course, there are online press kits, but they are not identical to these wonderful documents."
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