Hands: Plaster Casts of Astronauts Hands, Ralph Morse, 1968
View of plaster casts of the hands of NASA astronauts, taken for the custom fitting of the gloves of their space suits. The casts bear measurements, names, nicknames, and other text; the two at bottom center and bottom right are those of astronaut Frank Borman, who commander the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968. Borman is currently the oldest living American astronaut, and will be 90 years old next month. You can also see hand casts for astronaut James Lovell, most famous as the commander of the Apollo 13 mission, which suffered a critical failure en route to the Moon. There are casts for astronaut James Irwin, who was the eighth person to walk on the Moon and the first, and youngest, of those astronauts to die. Also seen are casts for astronaut Alan Bean, who made his first flight into space aboard Apollo 12, the second manned mission to land on the Moon in November 1969. He was the 4th man to walk on the moon. Photo taken in Houston Texas, in 1968 by Ralph Morse for LIFE magazine.