Items sold included Armstrong’s spacecraft ID plate from Apollo 11’s lunar module and a flight suitA fragment from the propeller and a section of the wing from the Wright brothers’ Flyer was also sold at auction
Memorabilia that belonged to the first man to set foot on the moon, Neil Armstrong, has fetched more than US$7.4 million at auction.
Dallas-based Heritage Auctions says the item that sold for the highest price, US$468,500, at Saturday’s auction was Armstrong’s spacecraft ID plate from Apollo 11’s lunar module Eagle.
Also sold were a fragment from the propeller and a section of the wing from the Wright brothers’ Flyer, the first heavier-than-air self-powered aircraft, which each sold for US$275,000.
The flight suit Armstrong wore aboard Gemini 8, the 1966 mission that performed the first docking of two spacecraft in flight, brought the astronaut’s family US$109,375.
Meanwhile, in a separate auction, a gold-coloured Navy aviator’s helmet once owned by John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, sold for US$46,250.
