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Buzz Aldrin's moon jacket fetches sky-high sum at auction

July 27, 2022

The jacket that US astronaut Buzz Aldrin wore on NASA's historic first trip to the moon has been auctioned for almost $2.8 million.

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Buzz Aldrin's jacket with the US flag and the Apollo 11 patch visible
The jacket was made of fire-resistant material after the crew of a previous mission died in a fireImage: Courtesy Sotheby's /AP/dpa

New York auction house Sotheby's on Wednesday announced that the jacket that Buzz Aldrin wore for the first moon landing had sold for  $2,772,500 (about €2,730,000).

The item was an Inflight Coverall Jacket that Aldrin wore aboardthe Apollo 11 mission that saw him walk on the lunar surface along with fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong.

Buyer to stay secret

The white jacket features Aldrin's name on the left breast above the Apollo 11 mission emblem and a US flag on the left shoulder. It is one of several items from Aldrin's personal collection that Aldrin, now 92 years old, had offered for sale.

Sotheby's said the garment was made of a fire-resistant material known as Beta cloth, which NASA incorporated in spacesuits as a response to the fire that killed three astronauts on the Apollo 1 mission in 1967.

The winning bidder, who took part in the auction by phone, has not been identified by Sotheby's.

The auction house said the buyer had outlasted several others in a relatively lengthy bidding session.

"The exceptionally rare garment was chased by multiple bidders for almost 10 minutes before selling to a bidder on the phone," Sotheby's said in a statement.

Why was the jacket being sold?

Aldrin, who is the last surviving member of the first manned mission to land on the moon, explained he had worn the jacket while flying to and from the moon.

"After deep consideration, the time felt right to share these items with the world, which for many are symbols of a historical moment, but for me have always remained personal mementos of a life dedicated to science and exploration," Aldrin said in a statement last week.

"I wore this Inflight Coverall Jacket... in the Command Module Columbia, on our historic journey to the Moon and back home again during the Apollo 11 mission," Aldrin said.

The spacesuit he wore while actually walking with Armstrong on the moon's Sea of Tranquility is in the National Air and Space Museum's collections in Washington.

Aldrin and Armstrong became the first astronauts to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969. Also aboard the mission was Michael Collins, who flew the command module Columbia around the moon while his crewmates made the landing.

rc/dj (AFP, AP)