A felt-tip pen that helped save the famous Apollo 11 Moon mission sold for around NZ$1.47 million at Sotheby’s auction house in New York.
The plastic marker had been used by astronaut Buzz Aldrin back in 1969, when he and Neil Armstrong needed it to fix a broken switch on their spacecraft. The pen, along with the broken switch it repaired, was bought by an unnamed collector at the recent auction.
When Armstrong and Aldrin were preparing to leave the Moon’s surface after their historic walk, they noticed that a switch for the engine control circuit breaker had snapped off and fallen to the floor. Thinking quickly, Aldrin pushed the tip of his pen into the hole where the switch should have been, which allowed the engine to start so the astronauts could return safely home.
The Apollo 11 mission was famous for being the first time humans walked on the Moon. Along with Armstrong and Aldrin, astronaut Michael Collins also took part in the eight-day journey. Around 650 million people watched as Armstrong took his first steps and spoke his now-famous words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”
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