The jacket that the astronaut Buzz Aldrin to wear in the first voyage of man to the moon It sold on Tuesday for a record price of $ 2.77 million in an auction organized by the house Sotheby’s.

Sotheby’s has not provided the details of the buyer of this unique piece, the most emblematic of the 69 objects in Aldrin’s collectionthat were part of that historic mission of Apollo 11 to the Moon or Gemini 12, the ship where Aldrin made his first “spacewalks”, as well as medals and decorations obtained by the astronaut in the course of his life.

The jacket, which Aldrin would wear under his bulky astronaut suit while I was taking that famous walk with Neil Armstrongit was valued at between $ 1 and $ 2 million, which far exceeds the best expectations.

It was the most striking object of the auction: white in color and made with Teflon technology, this jacket has the American flag on the left sleeve and a NASA logo and an Apollo 11 logo on the front pockets; In addition, it has the identification “E.Aldrin” sewn, after Edwin, the astronaut’s first name.

The second highest-paid item in today’s auction – $ 819,000, eight times the estimated price – was the summary of the flight chart of that Apollo 11 missionfollowed by a “system check” booklet from the same mission, paid for $ 567,000.

Several manuals with that mission’s instructions – dictionaries, conversation letters, or notes with Aldrin’s handwriting – also surpassed $ 200,000 each, as well as a fire extinguisher designed specifically to work on the Moon, which sold for $ 327,600.

But the most original object in the collection, a marker that Aldrin applied in place of a broken lever and which performed the miracle of taking the space capsule from the Moon, remained without a buyer.

EFE