Special guests who were invited to watch the launches of the Apollo program from a special viewing area were issued passes. These lucky few were entitled to be at a spot that was as close to the launch as one could safely get. I have a launch viewing pass from each Apollo mission in my collection.
On the other missions, the passes were rather ordinary. But with the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969, the first lunar landing attempt, NASA dressed up the launch viewing passes and for the first time wrote on the pass: "After launch, it may be kept as a souvenir of the mission."
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