Where is our resident space item collector?
CaptHenway
Posts: 32,901 ✭✭✭✭✭
The Langbords should have had the lawyer who got this item away from NASA!
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/24/us/neil-armstrong-moon-bag.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur
Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
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I bet @SkyMan has been following this case for awhile. This one sounds pricey.
Big difference in this case is the U.S. Government actually sold the bag in their own auction.
I was just down in Houston this past week for a graduation. We went to the Johnson Space Center on Saturday. Quite an impressive place. Wow......This is what you see as you're pulling up.....
Back in the early 80's I was living in Colorado Springs and they announced that the Space Shuttle would be arriving from California on the back of this 747 on its way to Florida at a certain time. At that time several of us from ANA Headquarters went out front and watched it do a low pass over town. Utterly astounding!
That evening they opened up a gate out at Peterson AFB and let us drive by it slowly. Again it was amazing, but not like seeing it in the air. You would swear that that pair of birds could not fly!
Interesting story and a cool artifact. I will be watching to see what it sells for. I question the purported sale value of this... seems very high. The lady is a good lawyer as well as having a sharp eye in auctions. Cheers, RickO
...an incredible travesty of numismatic justice for the memory of Izzy.
And we glorify Jesse James ?
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
Four million dollars sounds high to me. That's roughly twice the amount of the current highest priced space artifact sold, which is an early Vostok spacecraft (more or less gutted). FWIW, these sort of bags from later Apollo flights have come on the market and gone for roughly $100,000. Still, I've never heard of any surface used objects from Apollo 11. Lunar surface used objects are considered the ultimate space collectible. Given that you only need two people with big wallets, and given that it's been authenticated and all, this could go for $4,000,000, I just doubt it, unless the ultimate purchaser is not a space collector per se, but more of a general collector with deep pockets.
U.S. Type Set
How would one authenticate such a bag as being "the right stuff"?
It looks like a neat shopping bag.
The Mysterious Egyptian Magic Coin
Coins in Movies
Coins on Television
It's got moon dust in it!
Somehow this picture looks a little obscene to me....
There is an old NASA saying (actually I believe it dates back to NACA the precursor of NASA) that the spacecraft (plane) won't fly until the amount of paperwork reaches the altitude the spacecraft (plane) is supposed to top out at. The serial number (or S/N in NASA speak) is listed on essentially every NASA item. Not only that, but all the parts (of the completed item) also have a part number. EVERY NASA flight has a Stowage List of the parts used on the mission.
Here is a piece from my collection called a leg assembly. An astronaut would strap it around his thigh. In the large pocket would be a checklist (essentially a 2 or 3 ringed binder/book that would detail what the astronaut was supposed to be doing at that point in time). In the small pocket would generally go a pair of scissors, as they could be used in many different ways. If you look closely you'll see that BOTH of the main parts of the leg assembly have both a part number and a serial number. I've got various Apollo 12 checklists, so I've put one into the Leg Assembly to better represent it (you'll notice the checklist has a S/N and part number too). There's also a quarter for scale. I've also attached a couple of pix of the Apollo 12 stowage list (the cover and an example page). You'll notice the example page SPECIFICALLY deals with items that are stowed in the LM (Lunar Module). I use the stowage list to verify the parts that I have were flown. There would have been a comparable stowage list for Apollo 11, showing what items flew on that mission.
U.S. Type Set
Sample return bag - no problem, but try to keep an Apollo rock, no lawyer would win that one......
Best, SH
I'll bet you got to research every rock. Was there ever a worry that these rocks or the bags could bring something nasty back to earth?
Clearly you have this wrong, Tom ... and Skyman is only adding to the misinformation.
This is from the 1986 third-party grading company, Moon Money Grading. Their slogan was, "You'll pay moon money for moon graded coins." This pouch was used to hand out samples at the International Numismatic Show in Kilgore, Texas in March 1986. PCGS would later use this approach when providing packaging for the wildly-popular Regency slabs.
In Apri 1986, Moon Money Grading, closed it's doors. It turns out that their purchasing agent in charge of procuring the materials for the sample pouches mistakenly was using material from actual lunar sample return bags! A senate investigation is still ongoing.
See http://www.doubledimes.com for a free online reference for US twenty-cent pieces
Yes, It was a huge worry at the time. The astronauts and all of the gear that they brought back from the moon were quarantined for some period of time. There are some pictures of the astronauts in an AirStream trailer inside one of the space centers .
Sounds like you weren't around in 1969?
from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_11#Splashdown_and_quarantine
Someone should buy it and use it to put their new coins they buy at shows. Never know moon dust might make coins tone nicely.
The possibilities are endless
HAPPY COLLECTING
Very interesting and awesome.!.!
In fact, yes. When the first Moon rocks came back with Apollo 11, they were not released for study by the scientists. They actually fed them to rats to see what would happen. Then 4 prominent scientists started lobbying their congressmen to get them released when it was clear nothing bad came back. Finally, they were released for study and the rats had to find something else for their diet.
Collecting rocks on the Moon was more of an afterthought rather than a reason to go there - the real reason was to beat the Russians, but collecting gave the astronauts something to do once they set foot on the Moon. But once the amazing discoveries started coming out, it was easier to convince congress of the national treasure the boys brought back, and then NASA had the funds to provide researchers and build facilities to study and curate them.
I can see why JSC would want that bag back, it is part of the early Apollo history and would be nice to be on display in Bldg 31 or Space Center Houston. After all, this is one bag for man, one giant historic reticule for mankind.
In terms of me studying every Apollo 11 rock, well there were 47 pounds brought back on that mission and 100s of different rocks, I have maybe worked on a few grams of Apollo 11 at most.
Best, SH
I worked at Raychem, Menlo Park, CA, @ Interconnect Systems Division in the '80's as the QA tech guy who worked with an engineer.
There were Raychem product that flew on the Challenger, hand built gold plated electrical connectors, IIRC.
Thurs morn., a brief production break to watch the launch on TV,
I'll never forget it. All the production ladies crying / sobbing. Not good.
Next day Nasa called, "I've got a part with an "R" on it, can you help identify it?"
"Nope, Not our's"