As the second-ever human to set foot on the moon, Buzz Aldrin is an indisputable American icon. The famed astronaut’s series of spacewalks is embedded in the country’s history, and now some of his astral-themed mementos will be auctioned off via Sotheby’s, with one major standout being his original jacket worn on the Apollo 11 mission.
Aldrin wore the Teflon-coated Flown Inflight Coverall Jacket on his trip to and from the moon. As a result, Sotheby’s labels this 53-year-old garment as, “An incredibly rare piece of flight-worn gear from humanity’s first lunar-landed mission,” making it the ultimate prize for astrophiles far and wide. While this jacket is arguably the most coveted lot in Sotheby’s Buzz Aldrin: American Icon auction, and is expected to sell for anywhere between $1 million and $2 million, there are numerous other space-age relics worth mentioning, too.
In addition to the jacket, there is an Apollo 11 Summary Flight Plan with Aldrin’s signature on the front page expected to fetch as much as $150,000. On the topic of his signature, an incredibly unique lot is the broken circuit breaker switch that nearly sabotaged the entire Apollo 11 crew, which is accompanied by the Duro “Rocket” pen that Aldrin used to arm the engine and save the mission. Overall, the auction boasts a total of 69 different lots, so there is no shortage of space-age relics, some of which even pertain to Gemini XII, which helped pave the way for the Apollo missions.
The moon landing remains a major talking point to this day, which makes this sprawling auction as timely as ever. Sotheby’s Buzz Aldrin: American Icon auction kicks off on July 26, with price estimates ranging between $1,000 and $2 million.
