Item #758 A Fragment of Apollo 11; Apollo 11 Hatch Plug. NASA.
A Fragment of Apollo 11; Apollo 11 Hatch Plug

A Fragment of Apollo 11; Apollo 11 Hatch Plug

Cape Kennedy: NASA, 1969. Composition hatch plug, flown to the Moon and back on Apollo 11 (the first manned landing). 1 1/2“ long X 3/4“ diameter. An actual piece of the legendary Columbia command module, removed to shut down the electrical systems and open the hatch during ocean recovery. Scorched on one end from re–entry else fine, in a handmade 18K gold cage, hand engraved on the side, “Flown to the moon on Apollo 11” and ringed to an 18K gold, 27 inch, handmade chain. Ex–Dick Williamson, the recovery chopper film technician with the frogmen helicoptered from the first ship to reach the module as it floated in the Pacific. [with] Williamson’s note of provenance signed in ink. fine. Item #758

Apollo 11’s Columbia is now in the Smithsonian, intact as a national relic. The hatch plugs and some screws were among the only components of the ship itself that had to be removed and could be expected to remain in the hands of collectors today. And if you wait a few years, regardless of price, you are going to have to use the Dark Side of the Force to buy an authentic piece of the spacecraft from this specific mission. Setting Armstrong (a civilian) and Aldrin (a Colonel) on the Moon, and bringing them back alive, was the most ambitious and complex of all human achievements so far. In 1,000 years, it may be the only event anyone remembers to associate with the 20th century. This was the United States its maximum sensational, and America is still the best promise. For the record: Apollo 1 caught fire. Apollos 2 through 6 were unmanned tests and Apollo 7 was a flight in Earth orbit. Apollo 8 orbited the moon and was the first manned ride on the Saturn 5 Rocket. Apollos 9 and 10 also orbited and tested the landing craft, but it was Apollo 11 that fulfilled the pledge, landed Armstrong and Aldrin on the surface, and brought them safely home. A mythic remnant with a failsafe future, spiritually connecting the wearer with the otherworldly energy of a human’s first flight and landing from Earth to somewhere.

Price: $15,000.00

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