A flown spacesuit from an ISS mission, a navigational globe from an Soyuz mission in the 1970s, lunar navigation charts from Apollo 11 and a 1963 training module used by astronauts in the Gemini program are just a few of the space history items that went up for auction today.
All images: Bonhams
Bonhams put nearly 300 space history items up for sale at 3:00AM AEST. A lot of the collection is made up of models, signed photos, artwork and documents — most of which look pretty fascinating. But there’s also some genuine treasures in there that, frankly, it would be a shame to see completely disappear into a private collection.
My favourite item is a collection of plaster casts used to make the astronaut gloves of NASA’s early spacesuits, including those of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin. But there’s also the Gemini training module which was used by astronauts in 1963 to learn how to manoeuvre spacecraft, a lunar navigation chart that once belonged to Buzz Aldrin, a spacesuit worn by astronaut Don Pettit during his return flight from the ISS in 2003, as well as a navigational globe used by Soviet cosmonauts in 1975.
What’s especially exciting is that these things don’t cost millions of dollars. While the extremely awesome full scale vintage Sputnik-1 EMC/EMI lab model fetched $359,350, some of the smaller items went for as low as $300. Regardless of the price, whomever bought these items will hopefully put them on display for all to see.
Astronaut hand casts ($207,060)
Don Pettit’s flight suit ($83,492)
Gemini training module (est. $80,000 – $120,000)
Flown navigational globe used by Soviet cosmonauts (est. $40,000 – $53,000)
Full scale Sputnik model ($359,350)
Flown Soyuz-3 Space Navigation Indicator ($50,095)
Aldrin’s lunar navigational chart from Apollo 11 ($53,435)