Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

The Apollo 11 Contingency Lunar Sample Return Bag used by astronaut Neil Armstrong. Richard Drew/PA

Neil Armstrong's moon bag sells for $1.8 million in New York

A lawyer bought the bag for less than $1,000.

A BAG WHICH Neil Armstrong used to collect the first-ever samples of the moon, which was once nearly thrown out with the trash, sold at auction today for $1.8 million.

The outer decontamination bag, which was flown to the moon on Apollo 11 and still carries traces of moon dust and small rock, was sold on the 48th anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969.

Auctioneer Joe Dunning introduced the lot as “an exceptionally rare artifact from mankind’s greatest achievement”. It sold to an anonymous buyer on the telephone following a sluggish five-minute bidding war.

Its previous owner was an Illinois lawyer, who bought it in 2015 for $995.

But even with the buyer’s premium added to the $1.5-million hammer price, the bag fell short of Sotheby’s pre-sale estimate of $2-4 million.

Sotheby’s said it was the only artifact from the Apollo 11 mission left in private hands. After Apollo 11 returned to Earth, nearly all the equipment from the mission was sent to the Smithsonian, the world’s largest museum.

But an inventory error left the sample bag languishing in a box at the Johnson Space Centre.

Staff were about to throw it out before offering it to a collector who ran a space museum in Kansas, keeping it unaware of its provenance.

When the collector was later convicted of theft, fraud and money laundering, the FBI seized the box from his garage to auction it off for restitution.

The bag, which has a tear and is made of the same fire-retardant material as space suits , was offered four times for sale before the Illinois lawyer bought it in 2015.

Noticing dark smudges inside, she sent it to NASA for testing, which confirmed in 2016 it was indeed moon dust from the Apollo 11 landing site, and that it was the decontamination bag listed in the Apollo 11 stowage list.

A legal battle ensued over ownership, which ended in a federal judge ordering NASA to return the bag to the lawyer , who then offered it for sale.

© – AFP, 2017

Read: Gonorrhoea ‘sometimes impossible’ to treat due to antibiotic-resistance – WHO

Author
View 43 comments
Close
43 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eggfuel
    Favourite Eggfuel
    Report
    Mar 20th 2012, 7:09 AM

    What a country Ireland is at last growing into to. Its starting to mature at last… Excellent idea

    29
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Mark O'Flaherty
    Favourite Mark O'Flaherty
    Report
    Mar 20th 2012, 10:40 AM

    Its about time Irish heroes who fought in the great war, world war 2 and other wars for foreign armies, namely the British army are remembered. Credit has to be given to Myles Dungan and Kevin Myers for their continuous writing on this topic over the years and of course Mary McAleese for the fantastic work she did in her time as president.

    28
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eggers
    Favourite Eggers
    Report
    Mar 20th 2012, 11:03 AM

    There was great economic pressure at the time of this recruitment, jobs were scare and people thought that the war would be short, It was a bit of an adventure for a lot of them. Unfortunately it did not turn out like that and the Irish suffered the greatest proportion of fatalities per capita of any people in the allied forces. They were treated as cannon fodder, there was nothing noble or heroic about being ordered out in your thousands to climb up a sea cliff while thousands of Ottoman soldiers shoot at you or charging across a bare field at German artillery. I certainly feel pity for them and how they were used. Like Ireland at the time, most of the men from the south in uniform were pro independence and freedom. Some were not, several of the RIC men that opened up on Bloody Sunday had done their service at the front in WW1. Countless men in the IRA, like the great Tom Barry had fought for years in WW1. My own Grand Uncle fought in WW1 and brought back weapons and grenades for my Grand Father’s IRA unit.

    There is nothing heroic in dying in mud at the hands of an enemy miles away in your thousands for a side that had no trouble with you going over first but nor do I despise them. Money was tight, jobs scare and the pressure to join up was massive. I’m just sad that they died the way they did, same as if they had fought for the Czar or the Kaiser.

    23
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute S P Mc Grath
    Favourite S P Mc Grath
    Report
    Mar 20th 2012, 11:54 AM

    cannon fodder is all the Irish were in the trenches!!

    12
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Eggers
    Favourite Eggers
    Report
    Mar 20th 2012, 12:31 PM

    Indeed and a poignant point was that Unionist regiments and Nationalist regiments were both seen as Irish by the British colonels and used for first waves attacks.

    A man from Galway or from East Belfast was viewed as just as useful as stopping a German bullet, whatever flag he doodled in letters home.

    19
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cez Miname
    Favourite Cez Miname
    Report
    Jan 6th 2014, 12:37 AM

    Bloody nonsense…

    1
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Cez Miname
    Favourite Cez Miname
    Report
    Jan 6th 2014, 12:34 AM

    “how Irishmen were recruited into British Forces… ” I really get fed up with this lazy post independence language that suggests the irish were dragged into some foreign army. We, like the English, Welsh and Scots simply joined THE Army.

    3
Submit a report
Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
Thank you for the feedback
Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.
JournalTv
Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time 0:00
 
1x
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions off, selected
      News in 60 seconds