Mercury Seven

by George Bishop

This print and its companion Apollo-Soyuz were published to inaugurate and finance the Mercury Seven Foundation, a non-profit national scholarship fund formed by the Mercury astronauts for promising young students in science and technology. (now, the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.)

Each archival-quality print is hand signed by the astronauts, sequentially numbered and accompanied by a framable certificate of authenticity.

This print has been hand-signed by the Mercury astronauts: Alan Shepard (d. 1999), John Glenn, Wally Schirra (d. 2007) Deke Slayton (d.1993) Gordon Cooper (d. 2004), and Scott Carpenter. Wife Betty Grissom signed for Gus (d. 1967) to complete the set. Items with all these signatures are rare indeed, limited to a few old faded, cracked photos and first-day covers worth a thousand dollars and more. The astronauts all signed in pencil (no autopen) largely and clearly by their respective mission patches, which are painted with such detail they seem to fall off the print! The late Deke Slayton signed above the NASA logo at center.See a DETAIL of the signatures.