Three joysticks used to pilot the spacecraft carrying astronauts to the moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission sold for over $ 780,000 at auction. Much to NASA’s dismay.
Two attitude control sticks and a manual translation control of the Columbia module of the Apollo 11 mission were auctioned this Saturday, July 18 by the house Julien’s Auctions (Beverly Hills). Enough to mark the 51st anniversary of the first human moon landing on our satellite.
Simple controllers sold at a high price
The rotation control handle, which was once installed near the right hand of Apollo 11 mission commander Neil Armstrong, was sold for 370 000 dollars. A second similar control stick, positioned to the right of the pilot of the lunar module, Buzz Aldrin, sold for 256 000 dollars. These two “joysticks” were used to adjust the roll, pitch and yaw of the control module.
Finally, a translation control stick (a T-shaped grip) used by Armstrong and the module pilot, Michael Collins, was sold for 156 250 dollars. It is in part this small handle that allowed the mooring of the vessel with the Eagle module (the descent stage that landed on the Moon), after having left Earth for the Moon.
The same handle, turned counterclockwise, could also have been used by Armstrong in the event of abandoning the mission. Fortunately, he did not need to operate the maneuver.
Thrown into oblivion, then claimed by NASA
These three commands were removed from the spacecraft about two months after the astronauts returned to Earth. They were then offered to the latter, who refused the gift. The handles – mounted on a personalized wooden plate – have therefore been stored at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston for over 15 years.
Bill Whipkey, then head of the centre’s machine shop, then rediscovered handles in 1985, just as he was about to retire. He would then have asked his supervisor what to do with these three rounds, and the latter would have told him to throw them away, can we read in a report NASA Office of Inspector General audit, published in 2018.
But Bill Whipkey preferred to take them home. Years later, the former employee then sold them to a collector.
In 2013, learning that the manual control installed next to Aldrin’s headquarters was going to be auctioned off by the RR Auction house in Boston, NASA initiated proceedings to try to recover it. Means have also been implemented to try to find the other two, so as to expose them to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
Finally, after three years of fruitless research, NASA gave up.
Note that another important piece was also offered at this auction. This is the spacesuit used in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. The object finally sold for $ 370,000, making it the most expensive combination ever to be auctioned.
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