Apollo 8 Flown Heat Shield Ablator

Flown heat shield ablator fragment removed from the Apollo 8 CSM-103 spacecraft, which launched from Cape Kennedy LC-39A on December 21 and splashed down in the North Pacific Ocean six days later on December 27, 1968. The fragment approximately measures 1.5" x .25" x .25" and is encased in a capsule-shaped 3.75" x 3.25" x 1.75" piece of Lucite, with reverse bearing a North American Rockwell label commemorating the second manned Apollo mission. In fine condition, with some slight chipping to edges. Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first to reach the Moon, orbit it, and return. Its three-man crew of Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders became the first humans to fly to the Moon, to witness and photograph an Earthrise, and to escape the gravity of a celestial body.