Apollo 11’s Moon Landing Guide For Sale – anyone looking to buy a definitive piece of history from the last century would struggle to find something bigger than the Buzz Aldrin’s moon landing guide from the Apollo 11 mission.
As everyone knows the Apollo 11 mission was the first time that man had landed on the moon and the instruction sheets used by both Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin are to go on sale later this month.
The papers going on sale are part of the manual that Buzz Aldrin used whilst first man on the moon Neil Armstrong piloted the Eagle, the lunar module, onto the surface of the moon on 20 June 1969.It was not until some 6 hours later on 21 June 1969 that Neil Armstrong finally became the first man on the moon but these instructions papers where what helped that momentous event take place.
There is a guide price on the papers of some £60k but to our mind this seems way under the likely sale price for such a massive piece of history. A spokesman for auctioneer Bonhams says:”Apollo 11 is pretty much the high point of the American space programme and the highlight of space exploration full stop as it was the first manned lunar landing.
“These documents have been to the Moon and back are the equivalent of Christopher Columbus’s logbook.
“They might appeal to an institution but this market is very much dominated by private collectors.
“The cards are pretty technical so having the letter from Buzz Aldrin with them is the icing on the cake as it helps explain just how relevant the cards were.”
Buzz Aldrin is able to sell the historic papers after a change in the law last year enabled Apollo astronauts to retain legal ownership of items they kept from their space missions.
If you want to buy yourself a big piece of 21st Century history then the papers are being sold by Bonhams auctioneers in New York on 25 March.