Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

ARMSTRONG AND ALDRIN SECURE EAGLE AFTER LANDING AND DETERMINE THEIR SURFACE LOCATION. image 1
ARMSTRONG AND ALDRIN SECURE EAGLE AFTER LANDING AND DETERMINE THEIR SURFACE LOCATION. image 2
ARMSTRONG AND ALDRIN SECURE EAGLE AFTER LANDING AND DETERMINE THEIR SURFACE LOCATION. image 3
Lot 117

ARMSTRONG AND ALDRIN SECURE EAGLE AFTER LANDING AND DETERMINE THEIR SURFACE LOCATION.

5 May 2011, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$16,470 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Space History specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

ARMSTRONG AND ALDRIN SECURE EAGLE AFTER LANDING AND DETERMINE THEIR SURFACE LOCATION.

FLOWN TO THE LUNAR SURFACE, LUNAR SURFACE CHECKLIST SHEET.
Apollo 11 LM Lunar Surface Checklist, pp SUR-7/SUR-8, a single sheet printed recto and verso. NASA/MSC, July 2 and 7, 1969. 5½ x 8 inches. With a Typed Letter Signed by Buzz Aldrin.

Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin had just completed the first manned lunar landing, but within minutes of that landing they had to secure the Lunar Module to a safe flight condition and enable their landing vehicle to leave the moon if a sudden emergency arose.
Accompanied by BUZZ ALDRIN'S letter, in which Aldrin describes the landing, and which reads in part: "Accompanying this letter is a sheet numbered SUR-7 and SUR-8 from the Apollo 11 LM Lunar Surface Checklist.... The entire checklist, including this sheet, was carried to the surface of the Moon in Lunar Module Eagle during the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969. This sheet has the important steps Neil Armstrong and I performed in Eagle just minutes after the first manned lunar landing.
Neil made a beautiful landing. The Lunar Module was automatically targeting us into a large boulder-filled crater. He expertly maneuvered Eagle away from that crater and landed with less than 30 seconds of descent engine fuel remaining. After landing we started a series of procedures listed in the initial pages of the Lunar Surface Checklist. The pages before SUR-7 had Neil and I preparing for a possible emergency lift-off some 2 hours after landing. That included a series of star sightings to align the navigational equipment to our exact position we now called 'Tranquillity Base.'
Side SUR-7 has the final steps Neil and I worked through to put Eagle into a secure posture just 50 minutes (TIG-50) prior to the possible emergency lift-off. The final important step on this side was to record the Ascent Pad as sent from Mission Control. This data was logged in another checklist.
Side SUR-8 has additional star sighting steps to determine precisely where our landing site was and to align the nav equipment. This was very important in case we had to leave the Moon within that hour and perform a successful rendezvous with Mike Collins in Columbia. Of course that emergency lift-off did not occur and just a few hours later Neil Armstrong and I became the first humans to walk on another celestial body, the Moon.... I have written on side SUR-7: 'Used by Neil Armstrong and me just after Eagle's landing on Apollo XI, Buzz Aldrin.' On side SUR-8, I have written: 'Carried to the Moon's surface on Apollo XI' and signed it along the right side."

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.

CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.

HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. 1899-1961. PUTNAM, SAMUEL, translator. Kiki's Memoirs. Paris: Sign of the Black Manikin, 1930.