Buy the pen that saved the Apollo 11 mission for a cool million (or more).
Flown documents from the Apollo 11 mission are incredibly rare, and those flown to and used on the lunar surface even more so. It could be argued that the Apollo 11 LM Systems Activation Checklist is the rarest of all, as it was never intended to return to Earth. It contains numerous manuscript notations made by Aldrin while on the lunar surface, and bears a “Jettison” tag adhered to the front cover.
The checklist contains a wealth of detailed information revealing how Aldrin and Armstrong pressurized the lunar module, opened the tunnel hatch for inspection and looked at the tunnel rim to check for the alignment between it and the command module. There are also circuit breaker diagrams, sections for writing navigational data and records of the pressure of the oxygen tanks, the voltage stored in the batteries, and communication tests between Mission Control and the command and service module.
This unassuming pen became a vital resource to the astronauts of Apollo 11 when the critical ascent engine arming circuit-breaker switch required for the lunar module to re-ascend from the moon’s surface broke off, placing the lives of all three crew members in danger. While engineers at Mission Control in Houston were trying to solve the problem, Buzz ingeniously used the felt tip pen he had used to make inflight notations .
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