FLOWN APOLLO 11 LUNAR SURFACE CHECKLIST PAGE - photo 1
FLOWN APOLLO 11 LUNAR SURFACE CHECKLIST PAGE - photo 2
FLOWN APOLLO 11 LUNAR SURFACE CHECKLIST PAGE - photo 3

FLOWN APOLLO 11 LUNAR SURFACE CHECKLIST PAGE

Lot 26
10.09.2024 00:00UTC +00:00
Classic
Sold
$ 88 200
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1279149
Lot 26 | FLOWN APOLLO 11 LUNAR SURFACE CHECKLIST PAGE
Estimate value
$ 20 000 – 30 000
FLOWN APOLLO 11 LUNAR SURFACE CHECKLIST PAGE
ANNOTATED BY BUZZ ALDRIN, 21 JULY 1969
Single sheet printed recto and verso, being pages SUR-52/SUR-53 of the Lunar Surface Checklist, produced by the Manned Spacecraft Center, 16 June 1969 with revisions dated 8 July 1969, three hole-punched. Annotated by Buzz Aldrin during the mission with data logs and checkmarks and signed and inscribed by him later: “Notes by Buzz Aldrin” on the recto and “Notes made by myself while on the lunar surface during Apollo XI / Buzz Aldrin” on the verso. Accompanied by a provenance letter signed by Buzz Aldrin and on his stationery.

Flown to the lunar surface on board the Eagle: a checklist page annotated by Buzz Aldrin on 21 July 1969 with the same pen he would soon use to MacGyver the broken ascent engine circuit breaker.

The present checklist covers some of the preparations made by Neil Armsrong and Buzz Aldrin as they prepared to depart the lunar surface on 21 July 1969, one Earth day after they became the first men to land on the Moon. The first page records tests run on the rendezvous radar (RR) and the Reaction Control Subsystem (RCS, the rockets used in ascent). Aldrin has written two values on this page and the telemetry reading once they had a good lock on their rendezvous destination: the spaceship Columbia.

The second page include a list of steps to test the Attitude Controller (ACA), each of which bears a checkmark made at the time by Buzz Aldrin and summed up with the note “all red flags” (as expected). At the bottom of the sheet, Aldrin has recorded two sets of gyroscope co-efficients. These were used align Eagle’s navigational platform. Lunar lift-off was about two hours away.

However, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would have perished on the moon if they had not been able to fix the broken ascent engine arming breaker on the Eagle’s circuit board. Most likely when wearing the EVA backpacks, one of the astronauts had broken it off. Activating this breaker was the only way to arm the Eagle’s ascent engine and return to the Columbia and then to Earth. Aldrin wrote in the accompanying provenance letter, “If we could not get the engine armed, we would be stranded on the Moon. They advised us to leave the switch in the open position until the timeline called for it to be engaged. I started to think of ways to activate the switch if pushing it by hand failed. As it turned out, the very pen I used to record these notes was the perfect tool to engage this circuit breaker.”
8 x 5 ½ in. (20.3 x 14 cm.)




Provenance

Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin (b.1930).
Anonymous sale; Bonhams New York, 13 April 2010, lot 1167.
Acquired by the late owner at the above sale.
Address of auction CHRISTIE'S
8 King Street, St. James's
SW1Y 6QT London
United Kingdom
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10.09.2024 – 10.09.2024
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