Sotheby’s on Tuesday received a $2,772,500 winning bid for astronaut Buzz Aldrin’s in-flight coverall jacket worn during the Apollo 11 mission to the moon.
The bid made the jacket the "most valuable American space-flown artefact ever sold at auction, and the most valuable jacket sold at auction," Sotheby's said in a press release.
"The exceptionally rare garment was chased by multiple bidders for almost 10 minutes before selling to a bidder on the phone."
The auction house had estimated the exclusive piece of clothing could be fetch between $1 million and $2m.
“This jacket is the only garment worn on the Apollo 11 mission that can be owned privately,” said Cassandra Hatton, Sotheby’s Global Head of Science and Popular Culture.
It is part of a larger auction of Mr Aldrin’s personal possessions, including his Medal of Honour and a “Go Army Beat Navy” flag he brought on a moon walk.
There is also the famous pen that may have saved Mr Aldrin’s and Neil Armstrong’s lives while they were in the lunar module.
The story goes that, after discovering a problem with the circuit breaker, Mr Aldrin’s decided to solve the problem with a pen.
“Buzz is looking at the circuit breaker panel and he thinks, yeah, OK, maybe I could put my little finger in there, but I might get electrocuted and maybe I’ll take a little piece of metal, but maybe I’ll blow up the entire circuit breaker panel and then we’re really dead. Right?” Ms Hatton said.
“Then he realises he’s got this pen in his pocket that has a plastic tip at the end. And by some kind of miracle, the diameter of that plastic tip was the same as the diameter of the switch, and it fit perfectly in that hole and arm the engine and saved their lives.”
Mr Aldrin’s possessions, as well as the first Gorgosaurus skeleton to be offered at auction, are two of the highlights of Sotheby’s Geek Week auctions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Company%20profile
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The bio
Date of Birth: April 25, 1993
Place of Birth: Dubai, UAE
Marital Status: Single
School: Al Sufouh in Jumeirah, Dubai
University: Emirates Airline National Cadet Programme and Hamdan University
Job Title: Pilot, First Officer
Number of hours flying in a Boeing 777: 1,200
Number of flights: Approximately 300
Hobbies: Exercising
Nicest destination: Milan, New Zealand, Seattle for shopping
Least nice destination: Kabul, but someone has to do it. It’s not scary but at least you can tick the box that you’ve been
Favourite place to visit: Dubai, there’s no place like home
KINGDOM%20OF%20THE%20PLANET%20OF%20THE%20APES
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Temple numbers
Expected completion: 2022
Height: 24 meters
Ground floor banquet hall: 370 square metres to accommodate about 750 people
Ground floor multipurpose hall: 92 square metres for up to 200 people
First floor main Prayer Hall: 465 square metres to hold 1,500 people at a time
First floor terrace areas: 2,30 square metres
Temple will be spread over 6,900 square metres
Structure includes two basements, ground and first floor
The%20Beekeeper
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COMPANY%20PROFILE
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It Was Just an Accident
Director: Jafar Panahi
Stars: Vahid Mobasseri, Mariam Afshari, Ebrahim Azizi, Hadis Pakbaten, Majid Panahi, Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr
Rating: 4/5
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Tearful appearance
Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
