Aldrin's moon landing jacket fetches $2.7M
The jacket worn by retired Apollo 11astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he set foot on the moon sold for a record-breaking $2.77 million Tuesday, less than a week after the landing’s
53rd anniversary. The in-flight coverall jacket features the historic Apollo 11 mission emblem and “E. Aldrin” for his given name, Edwin. It is made of a fireproof, tightly woven silica fiber called Beta Cloth used in the production of Apollo spacesuits.
The sale, which took place at Sotheby’s in New York, made the garment the most expensive jacket sold at auction, as well as the most valuable American artifact flown in space, according to a statement from the auction house.
The jacket was part of a trove of personal memorabilia and historic NASA items from his career and was expected to fetch up to $2 million. The garment was bid on for nearly 10minutes, according to Sotheby’s. It is the only flown garment from the Apollo 11 mission in private hands — the jackets worn by fellow crew members Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins are housed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
The 92-year-old Aldrin became the second person to set foot on the moon in 1969, following crewmate Armstrong.
Among the other items sold were flight plans from Apollo 11, including a complete summary of the mission, which sold for $819,000, as well as a summary of the touchdown of the lunar module Eagle, which sold for $327,600. The collection also included a fire extinguisher flown aboard the lunar module, several medals of service including a Congressional Gold Medal presented to Aldrin in 2011, and an MTV Video Music Award “moonman” statuette whose likeness was based on Aldrin.