Buzz Aldrin will be auctioning off his personal collection of items from both the Gemini XII and Apollo 11 missions later this month at Sotheby's in New York as part of their Geek Week.
The top item up for auction is the jacket he wore on the Apollo 11 mission to the moon, and is expected to sell between $1 and $2 million, according to the auction house.
"Sotheby’s is thrilled to announce Buzz Aldrin: American Icon — the most important Space Exploration collection to come to market," the auction house said. "The collection, consigned directly by Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin, who has carefully preserved the materials since his missions, includes the most important mission flown artifacts from both the Gemini XII and Apollo 11 missions."
The "Buzz Aldrin: American Icon" collection includes 69 different pieces of memorabilia, including flight plans, check lists, a broken circuit breaker switch, signed items, a "Go Army, Beat Navy" banner, his Presidential Medal of Freedom, and even "the original moonman" MTV Video Music Award Statuette.
The auction is set to take place on July 26 and 10 of the items up for grabs "will be accompanied by a MIRAImage™ NFT," according to Sotheby's.
The flown inflight coverall jacket features the NASA logo, the Apollo 11 Mission Emblem, Aldrin's name tag that reads "E. Aldrin," and the American flag patch.
"The ones worn by fellow crew members Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins are both now housed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.," according to CNN.
The broken circuit breaker switch "that nearly ended the lives of the Apollo 11 Crew" is expected to fetch around the same price as the jacket, and also includes "the pen that saved" the astronauts, Sotheby's noted.
"The story goes that as [Neil] Armstrong and Aldrin were preparing to lift-off from the Moon to return to the Command Module in orbit a circuit breaker switch had broken off the instrument panel. Aldrin used a felt tip pen to ignite the engine," according to Forbes.
Aldrin, 92, released a statement through Sotheby's, saying the items up for auction are a "summation of my career as an astronaut."
"This collection is a summation of my career as an astronaut, from my studies at West Point, to my first EVA (extra-vehicular activity) during Gemini XII, to humankind’s first lunar landing on Apollo 11 where we planted the American flag, and a bit beyond," Aldrin said, per Barron's.
"After deep consideration, the time felt right to share these items with the world, which for many are symbols of a historical moment, but for me have always remained personal mementos of a life dedicated to science and exploration."
Aldrin added, "I hope that this collection offers some insight into what it has been like to be Buzz Aldrin," per CNN.
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