Apollo 11 Pen That Saved Neil Armstrong And Buzz Aldrin Sells For $857,600 At Auction

A humble plastic felt tip pen that helped save the lives of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin during the historic Apollo 11 mission has sold for $857,600 at a Sotheby's auction held in New York. The dented silver Duro "Rocket" pen, along with the snapped off circuit breaker switch it once repaired, was consigned from Aldrin's personal collection and formed part of Sotheby's annual Geek Week science and technology themed sale, which offered 134 lots and brought in a combined $2,862,336.

The story dates back to July 20, 1969, as Armstrong and Aldrin prepared to leave the lunar surface after humanity's first moonwalk. Aldrin's bulky spacesuit backpack accidentally struck and snapped off the top of the engine arm circuit breaker switch , the control needed to power the ascent engine and lift the astronauts off the Moon. Aldrin radioed Mission Control, asking, "Houston, Tranquility. Do you have a way of showing the configuration of the engine arm circuit breaker?" As engineers scrambled for a fix, Aldrin later wrote that he avoided using his finger or anything metal on the live electrical switch to prevent electrocution, and instead pushed the nonmetal tip of a felt tip pen he carried into the broken housing, successfully rearming the circuit. Armstrong later recalled to ABC News that Aldrin had struck an unlikely but vital component, adding it was simply insurance that proved crucial.

The improvised fix allowed the lunar module to fire its ascent engine, rendezvous with Michael Collins aboard the command module, and begin the journey home. A 2012 law formally confirmed that Apollo era astronauts held legal title to such personal mementos, allowing Aldrin to keep, exhibit and eventually sell the items. The pen and switch had previously toured with the Smithsonian's Destination Moon exhibition and had been auctioned once before this sale.

Bidding on Wednesday reached $670,000 before buyer's premiums pushed the final price to $857,600, sold on behalf of the Buzz Aldrin Family Trust . It was the only lot besides a Skylab III pressure hatch, which fetched $192,000, to cross six figures at the sale. Despite the dramatic backstory, the pen and switch fell short of the top ten most valuable space artefacts ever auctioned, a list still led by a Soviet Vostok capsule that sold for over $2.8 million in 2011.