James Lovell’s pair of flown communication earplugs custom-molded for his use as commander of the historic Apollo 13 mission, both approximately 1″ x 1″ x 1″, with the exteriors featuring metal insertion ports for audio communication tubes and engraved with Lovell’s initials, “JAL.” In overall fine condition.
Accompanied by two glossy wire photos of Lovell during the mission’s television broadcast en route to the moon, with communication tubes visibly extending to his earplugs; a copy of the Apollo 13 stowage list, which shows the earplugs as Item No. B 0210 with Part No. SEB42100104-004/005; and two letters of authenticity signed in black ink by Lovell, with one featuring a descriptive breakdown of the Apollo 13 CSM accident and images of the earplugs and Lovell wearing them, and the other written on ‘Lovell Communications’ letterhead, which affirms: “I hereby certify that these set of ear plugs especially designed for me, were part of the communication system aboard the Command Module during the Apollo 13 mission…These ear plugs are from my personal collection of space artifacts and have been in my possession since the mission.”
Small yet significant, these flown custom-molded earplugs proved indispensable to the safe return of the Apollo 13 astronauts. When an oxygen tank on the Command Module Odyssey exploded two days into the mission, a constant line of running communication between CDR Lovell and the flight controllers at Houston’s Mission Control Center was essential to ensuring the crew’s survival. With the Lunar Module Aquarius upgraded to ‘lifeboat’ status, mission controllers troubleshot the issues and devised new return procedures on the fly, carefully relaying this critical information into the ears of Lovell, who, alongside Fred Haise and Jack Swigert, were nearly 200,000 miles from Earth at the time of the accident. Had the communications system also been compromised, the likelihood of a successful Apollo 13 return would have been minimal. A uniquely awesome set of flown communication equipment, exclusively made for and used by James Lovell during NASA’s most heroic and harrowing episode.
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