The flight suit in which astronaut Buzz Aldrin flew to the moon was sold at an auction in New York for $2.8 million. The suit was sold to Sotheby’s and became the most expensive American space item sold at auction.
The suit, emblazoned with the US flag and the NASA logo, was worn by Aldrin while he and his colleagues flew into space in the command module of the Apollo 11 spacecraft – Columbia. It is one of 69 personal items that the 92-year-old former astronaut decided to put up for sale.
Aldrin flew to the moon in 1969, and is the last surviving of the three crew members. He spent most of the six-day journey into space wearing the suit and changed it about halfway through to don the pressure suit, with which he descended to the surface of the moon. It is estimated that around 650 million people around the world watched the live broadcast of this moment on television. After spending 21 hours on the moon, he and Neil Armstrong returned to the aircraft and changed back into their flight suits, which he described as “much more comfortable,” in what he wrote alongside the item.
The suit, which was made of a fireproof fabric known as “Beta fabric”, and covered with a layer of Teflon, is the only item of clothing from the space mission that has been sold to date. The offers for it flowed for 10 minutes until it was sold to an unknown buyer over the phone. Other personal items also up for sale included a blown fuse and the black marker used by Aldrin to fix a malfunction with it – which prevented the crew from being stranded on the moon. In total, $8.2 million worth of astronaut items were sold, including a flight plan that was with him on the mission, and sold for $819,000.