Mementos of the Apollo lunar missions fetched the highest prices at a space memorabilia auction in New York on Saturday. The auction house Christie's conducted the sales.
A swath of cloth coated with lunar dust was the top-priced item, selling for $310,500. (Prices include commissions charged by the auction house.) The cloth carries a NASA emblem and the nametag of astronaut James Irwin, who was aboard the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971. The item's presale estimate was $75,000-$100,000.
A spacesuit worn by Neil Armstrong during training brought the auction's second highest price, at $178,500. The presale estimate for the suit was $60,000-$80,000.
However, not all items sold at the auction exceeded their presale estimates. A Russian spacesuit from 1960, carried a price of only $167,500, compared to a presale estimate of $200,000-$250,000.
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