Moon landing manual could fetch $9million at auction: Apollo 11 instruction book annotated by Armstrong and Aldrin on the lunar surface goes on offer 50 years after their historic mission
- The 44-page lunar module book gives detailed instructions for the Moon mission
- It went on the Eagle on Apollo 11 and is thought to contain traces of lunar dust
- The book is going on sale in New York at a Christie's auction to mark 50 years
The manual used by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they landed on the moon 50 years ago could fetch $9million when it goes up for auction this summer.
The 44-page Apollo 11 book details every moment of the lunar module Eagle's descent to the Moon in July 1969.
The 'step-by-step instructions', which are believed to contain traces of lunar dust, also feature more than 150 annotations written by the two astronauts.
The book, which was carried aboard the Eagle, is going on sale in New York at a Christie's auction entitled One Giant Leap on July 18.
Piece of history: This manual for the Apollo 11 mission (pictured left: the cover; right: a page from inside) is expected to sell for up to $9million at auction this summer
Historic first steps: Buzz Aldrin is photographed on the Moon on July 20, 1969. An instruction book used by Armstrong and Aldrin during Apollo 11 is going up for auction in New York
Christina Geiger, the auction house's head of books and manuscripts, said: 'These are step-by-step instructions that cover the entire portion of the Eagle flight.
'It is a series of instructions on everything from 'don your helmets' to 'check your power system''.
Since there was no audio or video recording of what happened in the cockpit of the Eagle, the manual is regarded as a unique witness to space history.
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It also marks the first writing by a human being on another celestial body.
The lunar module timeline book is being sold by a private collector who purchased it previously from Aldrin, Christie's said.
Another auction item, a signed photograph of Armstrong aboard a lunar module simulator, taken about a month before the Apollo 11 mission, is expected to sell for between $4,000 and $6,000.
Collectors pay huge sums for space exploration artifacts. In 2017, Sotheby's sold a zippered bag used by Armstrong and laced with moondust for $1.8 million.
This signed photograph of Neil Armstrong in a lunar module simulator (left) is another of the items for sale, more than 50 years after the Saturn V rocket (right) lifted off for the Moon
Historic: This annotation, showing the detail of the landing coordinates, is the first human writing ever to be done on the Moon
'Everybody wants something that has flown to space or to the moon,' said Geiger.
'It's so cool to be able to gaze up at the moon and think, I've got an object in my pocket that was there.'
Christie's has placed a $7million to $9million estimate on the timeline book, which will go on public view in New York from May 3 to 17.
It will then go on tour to Hong Kong, Beijing, San Francisco and Seattle before it goes under the hammer back in New York on July 18.
The book is the star item in a 150-lot auction called One Giant Leap: Celebrating Space Exploration 50 years after Apollo 11.
Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, while their colleague Michael Collins remained in orbit.
Moon men: Neil Armstrong (left), Michael Collins (center) and Buzz Aldrin (right) pose for NASA pictures two months before their historic lunar mission
The astronauts spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the moon's surface before returning to the command module Columbia.
They were outside the spacecraft together for almost two hours and collected lunar material to bring back to Earth.
Armstrong became the first to step onto the lunar surface, with Aldrin joining him about 20 minutes later.
As he stepped on the moon, Armstrong said: 'That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.'
The mission was the fulfilment of President John F. Kennedy's pledge to land a man on the Moon 'before this decade is out'.
It marked a phenomenal national effort to show U.S. superiority over the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Message of peace: This plaque was left on the Moon by the Apollo 11 astronauts. It was signed by Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins and then-President Richard Nixon
The Soviets had taken an early lead in the Space Race with the first Earth satellite in 1957 and the first man in space, Yuri Gagarin, in 1961.
But NASA caught up during the 1960s as huge resources were dedicated to the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.
Armstrong died in August 2012, while Aldrin and Collins are still alive.
There were five more successful Moon landings, as well as the aborted Apollo 13 mission in 1970
The Apollo 13 astronauts had to abandon their Moon landing and stage a dramatic recovery mission after their spacecraft was crippled by an explosion.
The remarkable improvisation to bring the astronauts home safely during that mission has been labeled 'NASA's finest hour'.
The last manned mission to the Moon was in 1972.
