Time-Life, Inc., offered $400,000 for exclusive book rights to the Apollo 11 story, reported the Washington Daily News.

The fee would be split equally into 60 shares for the 52 active astronauts and the widows of 8 deceased astronauts. The arrangement reflected earlier exclusive publishing deals negotiated by Time-Life with the astronauts. Other press outlets complained about the arrangement to NASA, but NASA argued that since the exclusivity only covered the astronaut’s private lives, there was no breach of NASA’s outreach duty.

A NASA history explains that the first deal was set up before Project Mercury even got off the ground:

The astronauts were to receive $500,000, to be divided equally, without regard to who was to be the first American —and, it was hoped, the first human— in space. The stories, to be written by Life staff, were to be presented under first-person bylines, and the astronauts and their wives had final approval over the contents. Life’s intention was to make the astronauts and their families look good. The astronaut’s wives were full partners in the deal and in the stories that were told." From The Collier as Commemoration: The Project Mercury Astronauts and the Collier Trophy by Jannelle Warren-Findley

Time-Life, Inc., offered $400,000 for exclusive book rights to the Apollo 11 story, reported the Washington Daily News.

The fee would be split equally into 60 shares for the 52 active astronauts and the widows of 8 deceased astronauts. The arrangement reflected earlier exclusive publishing deals negotiated by Time-Life with the astronauts. Other press outlets complained about the arrangement to NASA, but NASA argued that since the exclusivity only covered the astronaut’s private lives, there was no breach of NASA’s outreach duty.

A NASA history explains that the first deal was set up before Project Mercury even got off the ground:

The astronauts were to receive $500,000, to be divided equally, without regard to who was to be the first American —and, it was hoped, the first human— in space. The stories, to be written by Life staff, were to be presented under first-person bylines, and the astronauts and their wives had final approval over the contents. Life’s intention was to make the astronauts and their families look good. The astronaut’s wives were full partners in the deal and in the stories that were told." From The Collier as Commemoration: The Project Mercury Astronauts and the Collier Trophy by Jannelle Warren-Findley