- Buzz Aldrin’s space jacket was sold at Sotheby’s for $2.8 million.
- It is the most expensive American space artefact ever to be sold at auction.
- The 92-year-old astronaut visited the Moon in 1969.
Buzz Aldrin’s space gear, which cost $2.8 million (£2.3 million), was purchased at a New York auction. Mr. Aldrin donned the white in-flight jacket as he sped through space in Apollo 11’s command module Columbia, which was adorned with a US flag and the NASA insignia.
The 92-year-old has chosen to list 69 of his own possessions for sale.
The Sotheby’s sale of the jacket makes it the most expensive American space artefact ever to be sold at auction.
The last surviving member of the mission’s three-person crew, the former astronaut visited the Moon in 1969.
The inflight jacket was worn by Mr. Aldrin for the bulk of the six-day space voyage; he only removed it halfway through to change into a pressure suit for touching down on the lunar surface.
Around the world, 650 million people are said to have watched the event on television.
He and Neil Armstrong then returned to the Apollo mission and changed back into their in-flight jackets, which he described in a note accompanying the item as “much more comfortable” after spending more than 21 hours on the Moon.
This Teflon-coated white jacket is the sole article of clothing from the 1969 space mission to have ever been marketed. It was made of the fire-resistant material known as Beta cloth.
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