The Fascinating World of Astronaut Life Insurance
During the Apollo program, astronauts struggled to get life insurance, so that if they died, their families would be taken care of financially (a much bigger deal back then when a woman's ability to support herself very unfortunately largely came down to "find a husband"). As such, the astronauts on those missions each autographed a large number of postal covers made by The Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club and Al Bishop. The idea was that if the astronauts died on the mission, then those postal covers would become extremely valuable, and thus were to be sold at auction with the proceeds going to their families.