Please note that in each of the following checks, the Bill Anders signature is accompanied by a personalization to each of my sons. So one check has one son's name. The other check has the other son's name. I have digitally erased to conceal their names. I can send you the full scan to see how it displays if and when necessary.
Around the time of the 100th anniversary of flight, I began adding the signatures of air and space pioneers to several Orville Wright checks. Wright originally made these checks out to cash so he has signed both the front and back. The first check contains more signatures than the second - I started the second one later. Here's a list of all the pioneers who have added their names to one or more of these documents:
- Orville Wright, pilot for the first powered and sustained heavier-than-air human flight (1903)
- Chuck Yeager, the first human to fly faster than sound (1947)
- Bob Hoover, pilot for the chase plane for Yeager's supersonic flight (1947)
- Betty Skelton Frankman, the first female aerobatics pilot in the U.S. (1948)
- Scott Crossfield, the first human to fly twice the speed of sound Mach 2 (1953)
- William "Pete" Knight, the first human to travel at Mach 6 (1957)
- Joe Kittinger, the first human to descend by parachute from the edge of space (1960)
- John Glenn, the first American to orbit the earth (1962)
- Pavel Popovich, participant in the first dual flights in space - Vostok 3, 4 (1962)
- Bob White, the first human to reach space in a winged rocketplane (1962)
- Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space (1963)
- Jerri Mock, the first woman to fly solo around the world (1964)
- Alexei Leonov, the first human to walk in space (1965)
- Wally Schirra, Tom Stafford, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, the first rendezvous in space (1965)
- Dave Scott, crew member of the first docking in space (1966)
- Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, Bill Anders, the first humans to leave earth's influence (1968)
- Rusty Schweickart, the first human to spacewalk with a portable life support pack (1969)
- Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins, crew for Apollo 11, the first landing on the moon (1969)
Other signers include:
- Paul Weitz, pilot for the first space station mission, Skylab-2 (1973)
- Bryan Allen, pilot of the first human powered flight (1977)
- Paul MacCready, designer of the first human powered aircraft (1977)
- Joe Engle, pilot for the first space shuttle test flights reaching Mach 24 (1981)
- John Young and Bob Crippen, the crew of the first space shuttle mission (1981)
- Sally Ride, the first American woman in space (1983)
- Bruce McCandless, the first human to perform an unthethered free flight in space (1984)
- Kathy Sullivan, the first American woman to walk in space (1984)
- Jake Garn, the first politician to fly in space (1985)
- Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, crew for the first non-stop flight around the world (1986)
- Richard Branson, the first person to cross the Atlantic by balloon (1986)
- Bertrand Piccard, balloonist for the first non-stop balloon flight around the world (1999)
- Dennis Tito, the world's first privately funded "space flight participant" (2001)
- Steve Fossett, the first human to fly non-stop solo around the world (2002)
- Burt Rutan, designed of the first privately funded journey into space (2004)
- Mike Melvill and Brian Binnie, pilots for the first privately funded journey into space (2004)
- Jennifer Trosper, mission manager for Spirit, directing the movements of the first rover to traverse Mars (2004)
- Anousheh Ansari, the world's first female privately funded "space flight participant" (2006)
Thousands of years from now, people will remember the historic first steps taken by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins. This rare vintage NASA glossy features signatures from each of the the three crew members.
The Apollo 11 mission featured some breathtaking images from the surface of the moon. This image shows one of man's first steps on another world.
Of the crews, the men of Apollo 12 probably showcased the best team chemistry and sense of humor. This is a vintage NASA glossy signed by all three crew members.
While Apollo 13 never made it to the moon, the courage displayed by the crew in space and in mission control continues to inspire. This is a rare signed glossy featuring the signatures of all three crew members.
About ten years after his first flight into space, Alan Shepard and the crew of Apollo 14 finally made it to the moon. This vintage NASA glossy features the signatures of all three crew members. One glossy is unpersonalized. The other is personalized.
Often times, signed vintage NASA glossies contain brief little insights into the history of the Apollo program. This signed glossy from the crew of Apollo 16 features a message from John Young underscoring how one is never completely prepared for the realities of space flight.
The final Apollo mission featured geologist Harrison Schmidt and "last man on the moon" Gene Cernan. This is a vintage NASA glossy is signed by all three crew members.
This piece features the signatures of all 9 Skylab crew members as well as support team members. The signatures are mounted below a vintage glossy depicting one of the early Skylab launches.
This vintage NASA glossy features the signatures of all three crew members from the final Skylab-4 mission.
This vintage Apollo-Soyuz piece features the signatures of all five crew members. I don't have the scan here but I can send it to you.
