Auctioneers Sotheby's in New York today are poised to unveil a piece of history that could easily fetch over £600,000: a dented silver plastic Duro Rocket pen used by Buzz Aldrin to repair the Apollo 11 spacecraft during its historic moon landing mission in July 1969. The estimated sale price for this ordinary-looking felt-tip pen, along with the broken circuit breaker it helped fix, is between $800,000 and $1.2 million (approximately £615,000 to £923,000).
The pen, part of Aldrin's personal collection, played a crucial role in averting a potentially disastrous outcome for the Apollo 11 crew. Following their moonwalk, Aldrin discovered that a vital switch had broken off the engine-arm circuit breaker, which powered the ascent engine needed to lift them off the lunar surface.
The incident occurred when mission control, based in Houston, was unable to remotely fix the issue and informed the astronauts there was 'no way to reroute the power'. Aldrin's solution involved using a black felt-tip pen from his personal preference kit – a collection of items permitted by NASA for personal use. He carefully pressed the pen against the circuit breaker, completing the connection.
As Aldrin recounted in his autobiography, Magnificent Desolation, published in 2009, finding the broken switch 'jolted' him initially. The exact cause of the break remains disputed, with Aldrin attributing it to potentially bumping into it with his backpack in a later book, No Dream Is Too High. Regardless, the incident highlights the ingenuity and resourcefulness required for pioneering space exploration.
Aldrin, now 96, is one of only four individuals still alive who walked on the moon during the Apollo era. The sale of this pen serves as a poignant reminder of the risks taken by those involved in this historic mission and the importance of preserving these unique pieces of space history.