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Astronaut Insurance

Suppose you are an astronaut about to go on an extremely dangerous space mission. There’s a reasonably high chance you might be killed. Also: no one will sell you life insurance.

That might sound crass, but it was a real problem during the height of the space race in the 1950s and 60s. So what do you do if you’re a spaceman with a family? According to the UK InsuranceNet blog, you leverage your fame to design high-value collectibles:

…a number of which were given to every crew member and subsequently signed by every astronaut involved, as close to launch as possible. Its value would instantly be high, but would no doubt sky-rocket (no pun intended) should the astronauts never return; the deceased’s surviving family then at least safe in the knowledge that in future they could cash-in their makeshift insurance policy if required.

Everyone in the insurance business has to talk about failure. You pay premiums (or autograph “insurance covers”) in the hopes that you’ll never need to cash in on the policy. Yet embracing the difficult reality of tragic loss is necessary to make the right decision.

Failure is the secret to success. Every Apollo astronaut who signed an insurance cover returned safely to Earth.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 6th, 2010. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.