And the Bid Jumped Over the Moon

Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module on the surface of the moon at 20:17 UTC on 20-July 1969. Six hours later, at 02:56 UTC Aldrin disembarked the Lunar Module and secured his place in history as the second man to step foot on a world other than the Earth.

On their way to the moon, Apollo-11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins wore jaunty mission jackets made of glass-woven beta-cloth—a fire-resistant material mandated by NASA in the wake of the Apollo-1 launchpad fire that claimed the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee.

The mission jackets worn by Armstrong and Collins are proudly displayed in the Smithsonian. Aldrin’s jacket, however, has been part of the storied astronaut’s private collection of space-program memorabilia since he returned from the moon on 24 July 1969. A 2012 law permits Apollo-era astronauts to retain the rights to any mission-flown equipment they saved as mementos of their spaceflights.

On 26 July 2022, Aldrin’s jacket sold at auction for an eye-watering $2,250,000—the most ever paid for a space-program artifact. The jacket was one of seventy lots offered at Sotheby’s Buzz Aldrin: American Icon sale.

Bidding on the prosaic, white garment opened at $500,000. Minutes later, Sotheby’s auctioneer Quig Bruning dropped his hammer at $2,250,000. All told, including Sotheby's premiums, an unknown buyer parted with $2,772,500 to acquire Aldrin’s jacket and the tradition of American space-exploration it embodies.

"And that is a world record for any space-flown artifact," said Bruning as he announced the sale.

The previous record of $2,055,000 was paid in 2019 for a gold medallion carried to the surface of the moon by Apollo-11 commander Neil Armstrong. Dubbed the Robbins Medallion for the mint by which it was struck, the item was one of three gold medallions delivered to the moon during the historic mission.

Sotheby's estimated before the auction that Aldrin's jacket would sell for $1 million to $2 million.

FMI: www.nasa.gov