Omega Speedmaster Professional Snoopy award

The Speedmaster Professional was part of the equipment worn by astronauts Jim Lovell , Jack Swigert and Fred when they embarked on the Apollo 13 mission on 11 April 1970. The third mission meant to land on the Moon, Apollo 13 was another scientific project that involved drilling two 3 metre-deep holes, testing a seismometer, measuring protons and electrons of solar origin reaching the Moon and more. But Apollo 13 never made it to the surface.

As in Ron Howard’s movie Apollo 13, the failure of onboard instruments meant that, “the Apollo 13 crew needed the Omega Speedmaster watch, first to time ignition of the rockets to shorten the estimated length of the return to Earth, and secondly, to time the ignition of the rockets to decrease speed and raise the flight path angle for re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere"
Finally (some would say miraculously), the rest of the flight went (almost) well and the crew returned to Earth alive on 17 April 1970.

The Silver Snoopy award is defined as a special honour awarded to NASA employees and contractors for outstanding achievements related to human flight safety or mission success. It consists of a sterling silver “Silver Snoopy” lapel pin flown during a NASA mission, a commendation letter and a signed, framed Silver Snoopy certificate. The award depicts Snoopy, a character from the Peanuts comic strip created by Charles M. Schulz.

After the completion of the Mercury and Gemini projects, NASA wanted a way to promote greater awareness among its employees and contractors of the impact they had on flight safety, the flight crews and their missions.
Since the Omega Speedmaster played an important role during Apollo 13, as one of the pieces of equipment that served as backup to the faulty instruments and thus helped save the crew members, on 5 October 1970 NASA gave the Omega and the Speedmaster a Snoopy award to acknowledge the crucial role the watch played.

The first of the Snoopy-related Speedmaster watches was a mild evolution of the regular Speedmaster Professional Moonwatch. The main difference was the Snoopy award’s logo printed in the small seconds counter and a specific caseback, once again decorated with NASA’s Snoopy emblem on a blue background. This 2003 Speedy-Snoopy, with the reference 3578.51, was made in an impressively large batch of 5,441 pieces. There’s a reason behind this odd number, as Broer explains: “The number has to do with the 142 hours, 54 minutes and 41 seconds that the mission lasted.

Our Snoopy is in outstanding conditions and ready to be shown off!