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Lot 216

SOUTH POLE AND HADLEY RILLE-FLOWN FLAG.

5 May 2011, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$21,960 inc. premium

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SOUTH POLE AND HADLEY RILLE-FLOWN FLAG.

FROM ANTARCTICA TO THE MOON.
Flown US flag, linen, 4 x 5½ inches.

An exceptionally unusual flag, carried both to the South Pole and the surface of the moon.
Scott explains in the book he wrote with Alexei Leonov, that in January 1970, "I had spent a week in Antarctica as part of a NASA delegation sent to observe scientific research in a hostile environment.... It was not a training exercise; I was there purely for observation.... Few places on Earth can prepare you mentally for living on the lunar surface, but that week spent in Antarctica ... was perhaps the closest I came to observing some of the challenges I would face" (Two Sides of the Moon, p 276).
Scott had taken this flag with him to the South Pole, and would subsequently carry it to the lunar surface on July 30, 1971. Flags flown to the lunar surface are rare; those with an additional history of exploration like this one, scarcer still. With DAVE SCOTT'S signed provenance note.

Additional information

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