MARK WALBERG: "Antiques Roadshow" is over the moon for this collection of treasures.

With Wally Schirra's help, they were able to get a couple of corned beef sandwiches into the flight suit front pockets.

You realize that space nerds everywhere are going crazy right now.

WALBERG: It's "Antiques Roadshow: Out of This World."

♪ ♪ WALBERG: Human beings' fascination with the heavens, outer space, has inspired incredible art, amazing technologies, and has ignited people's imaginations all over the world.

From the history of space exploration to the fantasy of science fiction, we've got a spectacular hour of space-related treasures to share.

Check out this appraisal with a guest whose connection to NASA goes back to the organization's early days.

For 16 years, I was one of the test directors on the NASA zero-G airplane, lovingly called the Vomit Comet.

We flew parabolic trajectories to simulate zero-gravity, or lunar gravity, as required.

And this particular one was given to me when I retired in 1977.

It has 16 different astronaut signatures on there, plus some of my co-workers.

And how did you first become involved?

Through an accident.

They were looking for volunteers, and I raised my hand, and we went from there.

And when was that, what year?

I started in the, in this program in '62.

I went to work for NASA, which was then called N.A.C.A.

at the time, in 1954.

I either was wearing a spacesuit, developing the lunar surface hardware, or training astronauts.

What you can tell me about this photo here?

That is Al Shepard.

I don't have his autograph on there.

But, you know, Al was the first American in space.

We practiced everything, and that's Shepard deploying an American flag that he later deployed on the moon.

And tell me about the photo here.

That's me on the left, and that's Marsha Ivins on the right.

Marsha was an engineer with NASA beginning about 1974.

And I worked with her several, on several occasions on the airplane.

And when I left in 1977, shortly after I left, she became an astronaut and flew on five shuttle missions.

Now, most of the photographs are personalized to you.

Yes.

So you obtained these in person.

In person.

Yeah, yeah.

Or in the case of that one, I took it to the astronaut office and left it there, and they signed it.

You do have some in your collection that are auto pen.

Right.

But the good majority of them are actually signed by the astronauts.

Yeah.

Tell me about the photo here of Gordon Cooper.

It was a standard public release photograph, and I just took it up to the astronaut office, and he signed it.

What's your favorite memory of the Vomit Comet?

We occasionally flew celebrities.

Probably my favorite celebrity was Bozo the Clown.

The real Larry Harmon flew with us one time.

That was fun.

And how did he do on the flight?

He did okay.

What would you say is your most memorable event?

The day before the day before Apollo 11, we flew with Armstrong and Aldrin on their final training mission for the Apollo 11 flight.

Buzz tried to do backflips.

He made it on one of them, but it was a little bit scary to me, because my job was to make sure he didn't get hurt.

Have you ever had these items appraised before?

No.

Well, we've selected some of them to bring out today, as well as, you also have, though, a fabulous album with a couple of dozen more images as part of your collection.

Oh, yeah.

Many of them are signed, some aren't signed.

As far as value, starting with the Mercury 7 photo... Mm-hmm.

At auction, this photo would sell for between $3,000 and $5,000.

On the Gordon Cooper photo, this one we would expect to sell for $500 to $1,000.

Okay.

The photo of Al Shepard I would expect to sell for between $200 to $400.

The photo of you with Marsha Ivins, I would put a value of $200 to $400, as well.

On the Apollo 11 signed photos, signed by all three of the astronauts there...

Right.

We would expect those to sell for between $3,000 and $5,000 each.

Wow!

You...

Your Vomit Comet photo, with all the signatures there, that would sell for between $3,000 and $4,000.

Wow, that's amazing.

The collection in total, we would put an estimate between $35,000 and $45,000 at auction.

Yeah.

You got to be kidding.

It's a great collection.

I am...

I am just speechless.

I thought maybe $2,000, $3,000, $4,000, maybe, something like that.

Yeah, thank you for bringing it.

Well, thank you.

WOMAN: It belonged to my cousin, and it was his great-grandfather that invented this.

And they made them in Hartford, Connecticut.

APPRAISER: And you've just always had it.

I've had this one about 20 years.

Right.

Yeah, yeah.

And I just opened it about two months ago when I learned that you were coming.

Really?

Wonderful.

Well, I'm very glad you did.

What this is... it's called an orrery.

And it's named after an English aristocrat who had one made at the beginning of the 18th century.

This is known as a celestial indicator, and it's fascinating, because not only is it in good condition, you've got the instruction sheet, and you've got the original packing case, which is very rare, and it even has got the maker's name, and says that it was made here in Hartford.

So it's got local history as well as technical history and scientific history.

Uh-huh.

These were used for demonstrating to children, to schools, and to adults how the solar system worked.

Mm-hmm.

And you turn that knob, and in the center, you have the sun, then Mercury, Venus.

After that, our own planet Earth right there.

It's suffered a little bit of damage.

It's lost the paper gores.

Our own moon, which can move.

If this were working properly, the moon would orbit the Earth, as well.

Yeah, uh-huh.

And then Mars, Jupiter, and so forth and so forth.

In fact, as you notice, there are less planets here than we now know are actually in the solar system.

That's true.

The piece is over 100 years old.

It's constructed from lacquered brass on a painted cast-iron base.

Now, according to our little instruction sheet here, you could have gotten a fancier cast-iron base with florid decoration.

Uh-huh.

Along the outer edge, you have the stars, the constellations.

It's a great example of Victorian technology, and they're very, very collectible today.

At auction of science and technology, I would not be surprised to see this sell for between $3,000 and $5,000.

(laughing): Oh, I'm surprised.

Good.

When they were made they were $25.

Exactly.

According to that, yeah.

But they don't survive.

Yeah, yeah.

They're very rare, especially in this condition.

Yeah.

My dad used to work at a movie theater back in the '70s.

APPRAISER: And then there's, like, thousands of variations of these posters.

So you'll find every incarnation.

APPRAISER: It's actually a Timby solar clock.

The globe would rotate as the clock was telling time.

The Timbys were manufactured between 1863 and 1865.

Today's valuation is about $4,500 at auction.

Interesting.

APPRAISER: Looks like a flower or something, right?

Yeah.

It's not.

Imagine this in 1835... shooting through the night sky.

It's Halley's Comet, and you've got about a carat worth of diamonds in there.

If you had to go into a store to buy this, it could be, retail, $1,500.

(breathlessly): Wow!

I would say that this one's probably '58 to around '62 or '63, maybe a little bit later, because of the... because of the plastic in the back.

They would have used just tin in the earlier robots, for the most part.

So he's probably into the '60s sometimes.

But you told me a story, you said that you couldn't get him to work.

MAN: Yeah, when I first got him, the part up here was hanging down on the side.

And I knew it went in here.

Right.

But I was looking for a switch, and I could never figure out where the switch was.

And one day, I just pushed him down, and he took off running.

(laughing): That's great!

(robot whirring) My family has been kind of indirectly associated with the space race for years and years.

My father was a manager of a hotel that was partially owned by the seven original Mercury astronauts.

And through that friendship, he got to meet a lot of the other people and become friends with different astronauts.

And subsequently some stories came out of it, and ultimately, that's why we're here.

Yes, I have a collection of a lot of different astronauts and autographs and all that, but I think it's, it's the story behind it that really made it interesting for us.

Through this entire space industry, interesting childhood for my sister, myself.

There'd be dignitaries coming in because it was so fresh and new to the U.S., that at one point we were told to try to keep the kids of Wernher von Braun busy.

Went bowling with his kids.

You've got an incredible collection of items here, and I only chose a few for us to actually look at today.

We've got this great photograph of your dad in front of the hotel.

But it's got something interesting on the sign here.

"Try our cornbeef, it is out of this world."

There are stories that kind of came and went a little bit over the course of, you know, a few decades now.

They've changed a little, but my father has recently passed, and there's no longer going to be another congressional investigation.

But what had happened was, Dad and John Young were talking about the food that they had to eat-- emulsified, reconstituted stuff in bags and packages, that... And Dad said, "Well, John, if you'd let me know, I could have catered it from Wolfie's," which is a great delicatessen in the Ramada Inn here in Cocoa Beach.

Well, out of that, these two got together, and they tried to figure out a way that they could get a couple of corned beef sandwiches into space.

From there, Dad and John went into the kitchen, took a full thick slice of corned beef, and then they started wrapping it in cellophane.

They'd go to the top of a six-foot ladder, and they would drop it.

"Okay, it's going to hold together."

Well, there was no Ziploc bags back then, so this is how it had to be done.

Well, I think with Wally Schirra's help, they were able to get a couple of corned beef sandwiches into the flight suit front pockets.

And the joke was going to be, to Gus, basically-- he knew nothing about it.

Gus Grissom and John Young were going to be on this flight.

He was going to say, "Gus, what do you want on that corned beef sandwich?"

Well, they pulled it out, and the sandwiches just disintegrated.

There was caraway seeds and crumbs and everything everywhere.

And nobody probably would have heard anything about this had that not gotten back down to ground.

They had the capsule on the top of the carrier, and as they were taking photos, there was crumbs and stuff everywhere.

Well, out of that, there was a congressional investigation that, I don't really know where it went too far.

But things were changed around to keep my dad's name out of it at that time.

Well, it's fantastic.

I mean, one of the aims of the Gemini 3 mission was to test different foods in space.

And to have a corned beef sandwich brought on board along with all these emulsified glycerin-covered foods... Sure, yeah, yeah.

I can see why the government might get a little upset and decide to do a little bit of an investigation about it.

Stuff was put in jeopardy, no doubt, but thankfully, no harm, no foul on that one, so... Well, it seemed to go over pretty well.

And it wasn't the last time that John Young brought a corned beef sandwich into space.

On his first Space Shuttle mission... Uh-huh.

They actually had corned beef sandwiches on board.

You've got this great letter from Alan Shepard to your dad on the Ramada Inn stationery.

It says, "Carlos, I needed a corned beef sandwich, and all I got was baloney."

It kind of corroborated what transpired.

Yeah.

We also chose two photographs.

Mm-hmm.

Both signed by Neil Armstrong, dedicated to your father and mother.

Mom and Dad, yeah.

And to you.

Correct, yeah.

As a kid.

This is an incredible collection.

The photograph, it's wonderful that it has Wolfie's, where the sandwiches supposedly came from.

And then we have this great letter on the letterhead, signed by Alan Shepard to your dad.

We estimate, at auction, this would sell for between $3,000 and $5,000.

(laughs): Too fun, too fun.

Just for this great little slice of astronaut history.

Yeah.

And now we have these two other photographs here.

These are some of the earliest signed photographs, with the NASA background, of Neil Armstrong.

We estimate, at auction, each one would sell for between $7,000 and $10,000 each.

Chair, please.

(laughs): Very good.

No clue it was going to be anything like that.

It's a great young picture of him.

And we look at this entire collection.

There is so much here from the early astronaut days.

As a whole, we'd estimate around $40,000 to $50,000.

Wow, wow.

Thanks, Dad.

All I know, it's been in my family for many years.

My mother originated from Korea, where I was born, as well.

And this is...

I've always known this painting, but nothing more about it.

Wow.

Well, that's exactly where it's from, is Korea.

It's an image of a Buddhist divinity called Avalokiteshvara, that in Korean is called Gwaneum, and this one is called "The Water Moon Viewing Gwaneum."

And the halo that's in back is the full moon, and she's sitting on a rock, like above the firmament of the universe, with the two attendants that are there.

From the color and the style of the painting, it's actually quite early.

It's probably 17th century.

Even, like, the first half of the 17th century.

Could even be a bit earlier than that.

It's ink, mineral pigments on a heavy textile.

Probably a hemp cloth.

It's a very beautiful image, very elegant in form.

But it's a very, very beautiful image.

It's glued down.

It has its condition problems, but it's worth restoration.

Okay.

And a good restorer could take care of this.

And it would probably be worth doing, because I think it would actually add to the value, also.

Okay.

What did you think it was worth?

I don't know.

Yeah, this image is probably... At auction, it would probably sell between $8,000 to $10,000.

Okay!

My father was able to meet Admiral Byrd in 1927, and got his autograph.

And he decided at that point to try and get more autographs.

And he lived in northern New Jersey.

And at that point, you didn't have to have a driver's license.

So at 12, he was able to just get in the car and drive to Teterboro.

And he hung out there, and he met all these people.

And by 1933, he had 250 to 300 autographs.

And so now it numbers 990 autographs.

Let's take a look...

Okay.

At a few of the individual examples.

Let's start out with one of my favorites-- and America's favorites, and the world's favorites, I think-- Amelia Earhart, signed shortly before she disappeared.

Yeah, right, yeah, in June of '37.

And she died, I believe, in July of '37, or was lost in... She's certainly one of the most sought-after aviation autographs there is.

Right, right.

And right below Miss Earhart, we have the famed man on the moon, Neil Armstrong.

Neil Armstrong.

How, how did he acquire this particular one?

Well, actually, my dad worked on this through the '20s and the '30s.

And then he became involved with family and job, and at that point, my grandmother was a widow.

So she sat in her apartment in California and wrote off these letters to people, and got, often, long responses back.

And that's... actually, she's the one who got Neil Armstrong.

And particularly with the Armstrong, I'm really impressed with the note he wrote on the bottom here: "I'm very pleased to have you place my name "alongside so many fine aviation pioneers.

Neil Armstrong."

Yeah.

That makes it very personal.

Yes, it does-- it does, right.

And precious, I think.

And then we've got Alan Shepard.

And then, up at the top here, we have all seven of the Project Mercury astronauts.

Right.

Signed... On here.

On a piece of ephemera issued back in 1959, I believe.

Yeah, yeah.

Then below here, we have the famous John Glenn's autograph.

Right.

And then Chuck Yeager below John Glenn.

Right.

And then over to the far side, by you...

Yes, this one.

You've got the famous Captain Eddie Rickenbacker.

Mm-hmm.

And that's definitely one of the ones that my dad got.

And then the famed French aviator Louis... Blériot, yes.

Blériot.

He was the first man to cross the English Channel, in 1909.

And then lastly, up at the top here, "Wrong Way" the infamous "Wrong Way" Corrigan.

Infamous "Wrong Way" Corrigan.

It's just an absolutely marvelous, marvelous collection, and it extends from, you know, ballooning history in the 19th century right up to the whole period of modern aviation.

Right.

And into the astronauts of the late 20th century.

And it's, it's so comprehensive at almost 1,000 different pieces.

Right.

We can only show a fraction of the pieces here today.

Oh, a fraction, yeah, right, they're... At retail value, Amelia Earhart is $2,000 to $2,500.

The Neil Armstrong, a couple of thousand dollars.

The autograph's signed in 1961, some years prior to his walk on the moon, so his autograph as a moon walker would be a higher percentage.

I see.

Even though this one's older, it's worth less, I see.

Yes.

Just what we've examined today, at retail value, the collection would bring $12,000 to $15,000, and more for all the hundreds of other autographs that you have in the collection, as well.

Right, right, so is it just... Just the ones that you actually were able to... To find.

We looked at, yes.

This is a celestial globe that my parents got from an estate sale in Washington, DC, in about 1952.

And after my father passed away, I inherited it.

Okay, now, where is the other globe that goes with this?

Well, this was the only one.

Okay.

That they had at the house at the time.

And I understand they generally come in twos.

The terrestrial's what we're looking for, which is the world globe.

Right, right.

And do you know who the maker is on this?

I believe it's Blunt Company.

Yes, it's sold by E. and G.W.

Blunt in New York.

Okay.

And we see this right up in front here.

Blunt was a very important territorial mapmaker and globe maker of America in the 19th century.

It's very interesting.

It says, "Corrections made to 1864."

But if we go further around the month charter ring, which is the signs of the Zodiac, we'll see that this was entered in the act of Congress in 1852 by Charles Copley.

These globes usually have lots of damage to them.

They've been scraped, they've been peeled, they've been dropped over the years.

They have a lot of repair.

They've been inpainted.

And as you can see, we have just a little bit of skinning on this piece.

But my favorite part of this here is, we have this wonderful casting on here, which follows up from the charter ring and goes down.

We don't see many nice globes here in America.

First of all, we were not a wealthy nation that the English were.

And so, this came from a very wealthy home at one time.

And do you have any idea of its value?

I have no idea at all.

I believe my father paid $50 for it.

Oh, wonderful.

At the time.

He was an astronomer and a physicist, and actually, this was a working globe for him.

Well, we believe that this could be, fair-market auction value, between $6,000 to $8,000.

If you had the world map... (chuckles): The other globe.

The other globe...

Right.

I think we could go somewhere between $15,000 to $20,000, especially if it was in this condition here.

Mm-hmm.

We enjoyed you bringing this in today.

Well, thank you very much.

I really appreciate getting that information about it.

MAN: In 1986, I started collecting astronaut autographs in this book, and I have astronauts who I met autograph by their biographies.

And then it's been signed by 122 astronauts and cosmonauts.

As a collection, I would say the book at the present moment is probably worth about $10,000.

Wow.

(chuckles) WOMAN: My grandfather worked in the engineering of the spacesuits that were used in the Project Mercury.

There were seven dolls that were given to the seven astronauts.

My grandfather ended up with this one.

It's very detailed, meant to look almost identical to the original suit.

I think it's the kind of thing that at auction could bring $5,000 to $10,000.

Good!

So thanks for bringing it-- it's a wonderful item.

Thank you.

WOMAN: This is a necklace that was a gift that my grandfather gave to my grandmother, probably late '40s, early '50s.

APPRAISER: Did you happen to know anything about the particular stones?

I thought it was moonstones and sapphires.

Very good-- two points for you.

All right!

(laughs) Not only do you have the moonstones and the sapphires-- they are set in 14-karat gold-- but when I took a more detailed look at this piece, it's marked Tiffany.

Oh, my!

This was a piece made in the 1940s.

It's very much in the style of Louis Comfort Tiffany's work, because he, too, liked moonstones and sapphires as somewhat of a signature combination.

This is later, so it is not one of his designs, but it is certainly paying homage to the work that he did.

The beauty of this, also, is that you have options on how you'd like to wear it.

Right.

This is a brooch, and you can detach that from the necklace and wear it as a brooch.

From an auction standpoint, a necklace like this would have an auction estimate of $5,000 to $7,000.

Oh, my goodness.

WOMAN: The album belonged to my aunt, Pearl Tucker.

She's a colonel in the Air Force.

She retired.

Unfortunately, she passed away last week.

Oh, I'm sorry.

And, so... at age 92.

She was very involved in the aerospace program, and started the Aerospace Nursing Program to train nurses to take care of the astronauts because she was... saw a need for that.

Right, and that would be 1963, when she was assigned to do this.

Right, mm-hmm.

It looks like she made great associations with the astronauts.

There's lots of personalized cards in the albums.

She would come in and train nurses.

She usually had two nurses at a time that she trained.

Uh-huh.

Over a two-year period.

And they learned everything-- had to wear the uniform, the pressure suits, they wore the pressure suits.

So they actually would have to take pressure training.

Yes.

Okay, uh-huh.

And altitude and anti-gravity.

They had to do all of that.

Okay.

And they wore the suits, especially, to know how to get the astronaut out of the suit upon recovery... Uh-huh.

If something happened, if there was an accident.

What is your aunt doing in this photo here?

She's at sea.

They had these amphibious vehicles that would go out and recover the astronauts, say, if the helicopter couldn't get to them fast enough.

And so they usually had two very strong swimmers on those boats, of which Pearl did not swim.

(chuckles) Tell me about the menu you have here.

Two days before their flight, they came in for training.

Pearl decided that they needed a good breakfast.

She took her china from home and she put together a nice breakfast and drew them this menu.

She loved ducks, and she always illustrated things with ducks.

Uh-huh.

It shows a real personal connection with them.

Right.

It was for Gemini 4.

And the commander on Gemini 4 would have been James McDivitt.

Uh-huh.

And Edward... And Edward White was the one that did the very first spacewalk, and McDivitt had to coax him back in because he, apparently, was having a good time.

(laughs) Borman and Lovell were the backup crew.

Later on, she's been with the mission for a while.

And you see these astronauts here, you have Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, who were with the Apollo 1 disaster.

Right.

Being close friends with them, in that disaster, it was her job to help get them out of their flight suits after the disaster.

Right, she did, and helped with the autopsies, yeah.

Yeah.

And so you can imagine what emotional trauma that would be, to take them out of their flight suits.

So she died, you say, in May.

She's only been gone for about a week.

Yes, yes.

Good.

She's going to be interred in Arlington with honors.

Is she?

In reviewing all the material I saw, probably the most valuable pieces being personalized signed things from, from the astronauts, I would say a value on this entire collection, with the album which you had brought in earlier, at auction, would be $20,000 to $30,000.

Wow, gee.

(laughs) If we're looking at a value of these objects here on the table, the collective of the original pieces would be this, this, and these photos here, and the book-- the value of that grouping would be $5,000 to $8,000.

Whoa.

She'd be really happy.

MAN: About 20 years ago, an elderly lady friend of my wife gave it to me as a gift because she knew I enjoyed books and that I could read German.

I really know very little about it, except that I know that it's a German atlas from the 1700s.

APPRAISER: Right, 1737 is the date.

And it was published in Nuremberg.

It's the work of Johann Baptist Homann.

Homann was one of the most important map engravers and publishers in Germany at this period.

And the thing that makes this unusual, it's not your everyday atlas.

It's a celestial atlas.

Yes.

And let's have a look at some of the interior pages.

All the color here on these pages was applied by hand at great expense and lots of labor.

One very unusual feature of it is the ink that's used on these stars.

Every single star is illuminated in gold.

That's amazing.

This is a representation of the northern sky, with all the familiar constellations.

Ursa Major-- the Great Bear-- Leo, the Lion.

They're beautifully engraved and then enhanced by the application of all these delicate shades of watercolor.

Yes.

It's very characteristic of German coloring from this period.

Let's look at another page.

Here's the Great Bear, looking particularly fierce.

Here's Perseus.

Perseus, right.

And they're just exquisitely portrayed.

And for its time, 1737, this was a very modern scientific atlas.

Let's look at something else.

It looks like a normal representation of the globe.

Right.

But when you look over here, what do you see?

I think that's California depicted as an island.

You're absolutely right.

Right.

And that was a testimony to the fact that the exploration of the Earth was still going on in 1737.

Sure.

A lot of people were convinced that you could sail around California.

Now, I can give you an idea of what an auction estimate would be.

Okay.

I think it would be $8,000 to $12,000.

Oh, my.

And it would be a little higher, but there's some staining at the back.

If you did remove the plates, some of these would sell for as much as $2,000 apiece.

No kidding.

So the sum of the parts would be greater than an overall appraisal might yield.

Is that right?

Yeah.

That's amazing.

But I hope you don't break it up.

Thank you, that's wonderful.

Thanks for bringing it in.

MAN: I found these toys at an aunt's house, put it away in storage for about 30 years, not really thinking it would be important till I watched you.

I've been watching "Roadshow" for quite some time.

And I know you're the expert on toys.

The best in the world, I think.

Oh, well, I...

So...

I thank you very much.

Well, I love these toys, and it looks like we have a real space extravaganza here.

Space toys started coming in popularity in the late '50s, early '60s.

The best ones were made in Japan.

These were made by a company called TN, and this was made by a company called Showa.

Two basic categories: space astronauts and space robots.

And you have two of each.

That's pretty nice.

How about that?

So you found these in your aunt's house.

Yes.

And other people were there first, right?

Basically.

They took what they wanted as important-- this was... And left you this junk.

Well, this was under a bunch of junk.

Okay.

And I uncovered it, kind of, you know.

Of course, I'm sure, if you watch the Roadshow, you know that we love them in the boxes.

Okay.

And we love them when they haven't been played with.

So we've got a lot of love here.

What you have here is this spaceman.

They're very desirable and very collectible, especially when they're in this kind of condition.

And then the other major category are the robots.

This robot, we call him Robbie the Robot, because he was based on the character in "Forbidden Planet."

But he's never called that on the box, because maybe they'd have to pay a licensing fee.

Okay.

By the way, one thing that makes these very valuable is, these little rubber hands are easily broken and lost.

Okay.

This one, as you know, has a problem.

It's missing its faceplate here.

The switch on there, right.

Now, because these are so valuable, there are people who make the replacement parts.

So that would be available.

Oh, wow.

So, generally speaking, when you find these in the box, they've been selling at auction for $2,000 to $3,000 apiece.

Wow.

Each one of these.

Wow.

But few of them that have sold for that are in these kinds of conditions.

So I think that's a very conservative estimate for the values of these at auction.

This one would probably be $1,000 to $2,000, because somebody could repair that.

Okay.

So you have some...

I have dinner.

You have dinner.

You can go...I think you can have a few dinners.

Okay.

WOMAN: They're all related to the first series of "Star Trek."

My father was a nuclear physicist, and a colleague of his who worked in the nuclear program headquarters in New Mexico sent him a letter with the pitch and asked him to take a look at it, and said that he thought that Gene Roddenberry was probably looking for technical advisers.

So my father looked at that, and, and he met Gene Roddenberry.

And then later that year, Gene Roddenberry sent him a letter with the original script for the first show.

And that, that letter is up here.

That letter's here.

Okay.

And then the script for the first show here, and most people of "Star Trek" know that that was never aired the way it was.

Captain Kirk's original name was Captain April, which... wouldn't have made it, I don't think.

Well, that's one of many things that changed.

If we look at the date, this letter was written in May of 1964.

Right.

And the date on this piece, it originated in March of 1964.

Mm-hmm.

So this is the original typed-up pitch that Roddenberry gave to Desilu Productions.

Yeah, I guess so.

Because they were the first production company who, who produced the show.

Uh-huh.

And it's full of all of these wonderful pieces of hyperbole that "Star Trek" fans through the years have latched onto.

(laughs) The main one is, he describes it in the opening sentences of his pitch.

This is his description of what the show's going to be like to try and get funding.

His tag line is, "It's the wagon train to the stars."

Right.

Which all the "Star Trek" fans really got, and now go back and laugh about.

The fans know about this.

A copy of it exists, and was scanned.

You can actually go online, if someone's interested in reading this, and find some of the blogs.

But the best part about that is that the known copy is actually Gene Roddenberry's copy.

Can't find one that's ever sold.

I even called some other colleagues who are also "Star Trek" fanatics who work in this world, and none of us have ever heard of one coming up for auction.

Moving on to that, it's really telling that this is hard proof that Roddenberry really did want the science to be right.

Mm-hmm.

He was reaching out to people like your father, who was a rocket scientist, really.

Mm-hmm.

And it's even funny, he used in his pitch the Drake Equation, which was the equation by Dr. Frank Drake, which was an equation to come up with how many intelligent life forms might be in the universe, based on planets.

He didn't actually know the equation at the time, so I love the fact that your father, being a scientist-- we have notes here, "Temporary.

Get correct formula."

Mm-hmm.

Posters have been made of this.

They call this the second variation.

Oh.

In "Star Trek" world.

Is that right?

The real one is the first variation, and Rodenberry's made-up Drake Formula is the second variation.

Oh.

And did your father actually ever consult for the show?

No.

Number one, he was sort of a real stickler for science, and he knew that he would be too picky, and he wouldn't let some things go by.

And, secondly, he really didn't think it would go anywhere.

But he saved it.

Yeah, he saved it.

Moving on from that, then, we have the letters.

Now, this is getting a little bit later, September of '64, the first script from the pilot.

The show didn't actually really air until '66, so we're two years before air, which is great.

It ran for three years and was canceled.

And it wasn't until the fans in the '70s put together these conventions, and rallied... Mm-hmm.

And really pushed the networks to bring it back, that they even started looking at the series again and realized what a cult phenomenon they had on their hands.

There's so much about it that's rich in television history that I love here.

But moving into the value, at auction, we would estimate at least $4,000 to $6,000 on the document.

Really?

But not having another one to compare it to and not knowing how many are out there... Uh-huh?

It could go for $10,000 to $15,000 on the day.

Oh, my stars.

This is a bit more common.

There were more copies of the original script.

Uh-huh.

Those generally sell in the $200 to $300 range.

Uh-huh.

A Gene Roddenberry letter might sell in the $100 to $150 range, but altogether as a package, it's worth far more than those little pieces split up.

MAN: I got this plaque out of a lady's attic.

She told me she didn't want it and put it on the street, so I asked if I could have it.

This was done by the Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Wow.

This artist may very well be E.T.

Hurley.

The fact that this is such a moody moonscape, he could very well have done that.

WOMAN: Did you ever see anything like this?

She wanted $50, but I got her down to $35.

Do you want to hold it?

It's heavy.

MAN: We have a bunch of photos and negatives that we purchased from a yard sale almost two years ago that are from all of the Apollo missions and Skylab.

APPRAISER: Wonderful.

These are very exciting to see today at the Roadshow.

What we are showing here are just three of the photographs from one of the albums.

These photographs are from the Apollo 11 mission, which was the first lunar landing that... United States manned spacecraft.

What we can see here is a very iconic image of the flag on the moon.

And this is from 1969.

These are color images.

They're in wonderful condition.

And they're part of this larger group that you have, an album, which includes 20 to 25 images from this mission in particular.

How much did you pay for these albums when you purchased them?

We paid $101.

$101.

Yeah.

And we're showing just one album, but you have a collection of them.

Mm-hmm, yes.

So this album now, at auction, I would value between $1,000 and $1,500.

Okay.

MAN: My friend Forrest Bess gave it to me in '62.

He lived at a bait camp.

Mm-hmm.

Where he sold bait fish for fishing down in Chinquapin, Texas.

And Forrest Bess is the artist, is that right?

Right, right.

And you knew him all through the years?

Yes, way back in the early '50s.

Mm-hmm.

And before that, I knew his mom and dad, the whole family.

Well, he must have been kind of a character.

He was.

Yeah.

He painted his dreams.

And this is one of his dreams.

He was known as a Modernist, and his work is somewhat rare.

We don't, don't see it very often.

I don't think his production was particularly heavy.

He was born in 1911 in Bay City, Texas.

And I believe he lived a little bit in Texas and Oklahoma.

He didn't really have much art training.

From what I understand, he was taught by a neighbor who lived next door.

He went to college in Texas, and he didn't study art.

He studied Greek mythology, English, and also Darwin and Freud, who came to be important to him later on.

For a while, he opened his own studio, but then he was, like many other artists, called to war, and he worked for the Corps of Engineers.

Right.

And then after the war, he was called back to be in charge of his family's bait company, in the late '40s, probably.

Right.

I think he came back then, and they lived in this small... House, you might say.

Uh-huh.

Some people might say it was a shack.

Uh-huh.

But he built onto that and built it up mainly out of driftwood that he found along the beach and stuff.

Mm-hmm.

In fact, the frame of this is driftwood.

It's very interesting.

Yeah.

In the late '40s, he was discovered by a gallery owner named Betty Parsons, in New York.

Right.

And she was very interested in the avant-garde, and when she first started her gallery in 1946, she represented Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko.

After they left her to go to another gallery, she continued to look for new artists.

And Forrest Bess happened to be one of them.

And if we look in the lower right, we see a little label, and that would probably indicate that it was in an exhibition of some sort, or in a catalogue.

And this... And as well, on the back, we have a Betty Parsons gallery label, and the price of $150.

The title here is listed as "Number 30," whereas in the artist's hand, over here on the stretcher, it says, "Untitled."

Right.

So it's possible that Betty decided to title the piece.

Yeah.

Now, you were saying that the artist liked to paint his dreams.

During the day he would take naps.

Mm-hmm.

And you'd see him wake up, and he'd write something in the book and go back to sleep.

Mm-hmm.

And then he would take that and put it on canvas.

When he'd paint, he would go out and sift builders' sand through a screen bar.

Mm-hmm.

And use that sand, mixed with his paint, to give it bulk.

Oh, that's interesting, wow.

Modernist works like these are very popular.

Modernism in general is quite strong.

If this were being sold in a gallery that specialized in 20th century and this, and this period, I believe the price would be in the range of $75,000.

(laughing): You're kidding.

No, I'm not kidding.

I would never have believed that.

That, that is unbelievable.

We thought you'd be surprised.

(stammering) I'm... blown out of my... it's just unbelievable.

WOMAN: Well, my father worked for Ansco company.

In 1962, he was given this camera and asked to modify it.

They turned the camera upside down, added a handle and a gauge so that it could be worked left-handed, singlehandedly, and he had to make this viewfinder from scratch to put on the bottom of the camera.

And then it was used for John Glenn's orbit and the Mercury capsule.

So, actually, John Glenn used this piece...

Piece.

To view the Earth and take pictures.

Correct.

While he was in orbit.

Right.

Which is fantastic.

Now, you did tell me... And we've got this wonderful newspaper clipping.

And you did say that the camera is in the Smithsonian.

How did your father get the viewfinder back?

After John Glenn's mission, they had asked to...

They sent the camera back and asked him to replace the viewfinder with a flip-type viewfinder.

Ah.

That was a little easier to use.

Right.

And I guess they used the camera again in another space mission.

But he kept the piece in his toolbox.

No one ever came back for it or claimed it, so...

They never claimed it, how wonderful.

And then... You also have a letter here.

Mm-hmm.

And tell me about this.

What does this letter document?

It documents, basically, the history, where it came from, and how it is.

Perfect.

And that he knows that camera is in the Smithsonian.

And that's wonderful.

And I encourage collectors to do this all the time.

Right.

When there's a family history... Mm-hmm.

With a collectible like this, whether it's as famous as the space program, with John Glenn...

Right.

Or even just things that are passed down through the family, a letter documenting all of the activities.

Now, what questions do you have about this piece?

Well, just, is, is it worth anything?

And, um... (laughs) That's all-- we just thought it was an exciting, you know, thing to have.

Well, I'm so glad you brought it in, because I love this sort of technology.

Mm-hmm.

And to think that actually John Glenn used this to view the Earth from outer space through the viewfinder is wonderful.

Now, items that have been in space and used during space exploration or orbit missions have become more and more collectible.

Yeah.

The problem is, is documenting it all.

Right.

And what's wonderful is that your father's still alive.

I would get a picture with him, with the viewfinder.

Okay.

Because that also will help in documenting the provenance of the piece.

Okay.

Well, a piece like this, because it's been in space, because of the historical aspect of who used this... Yeah?

I think it's not only historically valuable, but monetarily, I think it's a small piece, but a large piece of memorabilia.

Mm-hmm.

I would probably put $1,000 to $2,000 as an estimate on it.

Oh, great.

That's great.

Because it's so significant.

Yeah.

That's wonderful.

MAN: I started out at North American Aviation as an inspector, and I worked myself up to engineer.

I started collecting the photos after Apollo 1 burned up.

When I went to the cape and the launch team, they sold us these jackets.

We didn't have to buy them, but we just all wanted to wear them, so we all bought these jackets.

APPRAISER: Do you remember what you paid for the jacket?

Yeah, I think it was 40 bucks, which was a lot of money in the '60s.

Mm-hmm.

You know, so... so... but it was...

It was worth every penny.

What was your role with, with...

I was in quality control.

I tested everything before the astronauts would come in the spacecraft.

And that's what I'm doing in that one picture there.

I'm firing these rockets right here on the service module.

This is the command module, this is the service module, and I'm firing these little 100-pound thruster engines.

If we pick this up, it should...

It's a couple of pieces, but you can see that that's the...

Yes.

So you're in the command module.

I'm in the command module, I'm here.

Firing that.

This is the Apollo without the first- and second-stage rocket.

How did you acquire this particular model?

Oh, it was given to me years ago.

I just earned it, like... And then, so I just started getting all the astronauts to sign it.

You've captured 15 astronaut signatures on the capsule portion of this.

Yeah, yeah, right.

And so you were friends with them all, and...

I was good friends with them.

I met them in the early '60s.

We had to go through classes together.

So I got to know them on a personal basis, and they're crazy guys, so we had a lot of fun.

Okay, and this was a North American Aviation Apollo spacecraft model.

Yes.

It's the executive model, is what it's referred to as.

Yes, yes.

Talk about the North American Aviation group, relative to NASA.

How did those two organizations work together?

Well, they gave us the contract, and we interpret the contract and then get the approval for the design and everything, and then we built it to their specifications.

Okay, now, let's talk about this burnt-up sticker.

What happens is, when a spacecraft would come back to Downey, we would strip them all down, take all this stuff off them, and make them pretty.

And so this arrow, which is right here, they were scraping all this stuff off.

They were throwing it away in a big pile, so I just...

They just gave it to me.

This label was... Another guy gave that to me.

And he gave it to me because I was the final person to stamp, saying, "Hey, we've got a good product."

This is the serial number, 107.

So we called it 107, and then when it went to the cape, it became Apollo 11, in this case.

So that's the serial number sticker.

Yes, for... Of the Apollo 11 command module.

Yes.

You realize that space nerds everywhere are going crazy right now.

Well, I hope so.

Have you ever had it appraised?

No.

Or do you have any clue as to what these things might be worth?

No, none at all.

Space stuff is hot.

So the first thing I want to talk about is, is the jacket.

So that was your jacket, you paid $40 for it.

Yes.

You just don't see these.

If I estimated at auction today, I would guess it would sell for between $3,000 and $5,000.

Really?

(laughing): Okay.

Hm.

This model is the executive model.

Yes.

They have come up at auction before.

They have not come up with the signatures that you have.

We see there's Walt Cunningham.

There's Buzz Aldrin.

Right up here, ever so faint, is Neil Armstrong.

Yes.

We see Alan Shepard.

Alan's one of the most well-known astronauts, but his signature's not worth that much because he signed so much stuff.

(laughs) It's fantastic.

So if we estimated this at auction today, I think conservatively, it would carry an estimate between $20,000 and $30,000.

(laughs): Okay.

I don't know if I really wanted to know that.

It just sits in my man cave.

(both laugh) Well, it's a nice thing to have in the man cave.

Yes, yes.

We have the rescue sticker.

And then this was the serial number label off the inside of the capsule door.

Inside.

If we offered the two stickers together... Mm-hmm.

You would see those with an estimate of between $30,000 and $50,000.

(laughs): Okay.

I'm donating this to my niece, so she'll be happy to hear that.

The total here would be between $53,000 and $85,000.

That's amazing.

WALBERG: Up next, another guest with a personal connection MAN: This is an autographed picture of the original Mercury astronauts, autographed to my brother and I.

The way we got this was, my father was a doctor in the Air Force, and he conducted the first medical evaluations of the original team of astronauts.

So we have Wally Schirra, Gus Grissom, Alan Shepard, John Glenn-- all those.

They're a little faded, but my father knew these guys.

Did you ever get a chance to personally meet any of these astronauts?

Yeah, I met John Glenn and Alan Shepard.

They came to my house for dinner one night.

Wow.

John Glenn helped my mother do the dishes while Alan Shepard was setting up a telescope out front.

And they showed us the rings around Saturn.

That's great.

One of the reasons why I'm really glad you brought this to the show today is because I'm able to give you a couple of different aspects into how you appraise a collectible.

We're going to touch on the provenance, which is the history of the item.

We're going to touch on how the condition of the item is going to affect the value when it comes to sale.

And the other thing that I really want to touch on, probably primarily, is how current events and what's going on in the market today is going to affect the value, as well.

Starting with provenance, you have this wonderful typed letter.

This is the itinerary for your dad's examining all the astronauts.

Yes.

And it lists the eight initial astronauts, including, at the bottom, you have William Douglas, right down there, who didn't make it in.

He didn't make it, right.

So you would have had the Mercury 8, and now you have the Mercury 7.

Okay, so the provenance is wonderful.

And that six- or seven-page itinerary showing the exams that he was going to conduct, the time frame he was going to do it, the different things he had to do, that adds significantly to the value of the picture.

As far as the photo goes, of the seven astronauts, five of the signatures are pretty strong, very clear.

Cooper and Schirra are a little bit faded, and that's the result of direct sunlight on the ink.

That's something you can't correct.

No.

And it's definitely something that's going to have a negative effect on the value.

And the third thing which I was really happy that we could talk about is the current events, and how that's going to affect the values.

Now, we just passed the anniversary of the men walking on the moon.

Space memorabilia and space collectibles is very hot right now, a very popular collectible.

A lot of auction houses are doing auctions just devoted to space memorabilia.

For auction purposes, I would estimate the photo-- and I'm being a little conservative because of the condition, and I'm adding in value based on that paperwork that's there, which is really critical.

Without that paperwork, I wouldn't have been as excited about it.

I'm going to place an auction estimate on this at $3,000 to $5,000.

Wow.

If you wanted to insure it, insure it for $7,500 or so.

Okay.

WALBERG: Thanks for watching this special episode of "Antiques Roadshow."

Follow @roadshowPBS, and watch us anytime at pbs.org/antiques, or on the PBS video app.

I'm Mark Walberg.

See you next time on "Antiques Roadshow."