Apollo Spacecraft Contractor’s Model

A contractor’s desk model of the Apollo Command and Service Module, on a round black base whose rim reads “Apollo Spacecraft” and “North American Rockwell” beneath the company’s circular winged emblem.

The wording dates it to 1967–73, the years North American Aviation traded as North American Rockwell following its March 1967 merger with Rockwell-Standard; comparable examples from before the merger instead read “North American Aviation, Inc.” on the same base.

Models of this type were contractor giveaways, presented to dignitaries, subcontractors, astronauts, and flight directors, and appear in several astronauts’ official portrait photographs; they were produced for North American Rockwell by the Walter J. Hyatt Co., whose small circular “H·Y·T” maker’s stamp appears in the corner of this piece’s own box label, alongside the same “Apollo Spacecraft / North American Rockwell” design printed on the base.

The model separates into the base, topped with a small clear plastic cylinder displaying the Service Module engine nozzle, a paneled Service Module cylinder, and a Command Module cone bearing “United States” lettering and a US flag decal, standing twelve inches tall assembled; a separate Launch Escape System tower on its own small gantry-style stand, packed in the same box, brings the ensemble to twenty-one inches overall. The base measures seven inches across.