Buzz Aldrin's Apollo 11 pen and plastic fragment sell for $857,600
A felt-tip pen and a piece of plastic from the Apollo 11 mission sold for $857,600 at auction. The items were linked to a critical moment during the Moon landing.
A dried-out felt-tip marker and a snapped-off piece of black plastic sold for $857,600 at a Sotheby's auction on Wednesday. These items were part of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, which carried humans to the Moon for the first time 57 years ago.
One of the items was literally space debris, but the other was the solution that saved the mission. While the items' material value is low, their historical significance drove the price to astronomical levels.
The items are linked to a situation where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin risked being stranded on the Moon. Buzz Aldrin asked Mission Control how they could start the ascent engine, having inadvertently broken off the tip of the circuit breaker switch. This incident could have prevented their return to Earth.
Aldrin suggested they could push the broken switch back in, but doubted its functionality after ignition. The felt-tip pen was the tool ultimately used to successfully engage the circuit breaker, enabling their return journey.
Sotheby's confirmed the sale, highlighting the unique role these artifacts played in one of humanity's greatest achievements. The auction generated a record sum for items representing both the astronauts' ingenuity and the Apollo program's technical prowess.