Buzz Aldrin Apollo 11 Inflight Coverall Jacket

A jacket made because of a fire

Until the Apollo 1 fire in 1967, which killed three astronauts, spacesuits and inflight gear were made from flammable materials such as nylon. The fire set off a review of suit design, and one result was a new fireproof fabric called Beta cloth, a Teflon-coated silica fiber cloth much like fiberglass. It was the same material used in the A7L spacesuits worn on the Moon.

This jacket is part of an Inflight Coverall Garment, a three-piece outfit of jacket, trousers and boots made for each Apollo 11 crew member. Its label reads 'Coverall, Jacket / BW-1060-002 / Size: ML S/N: 1039 / Subject: Aldrin / Contract No.: NAS 9-8309 / Date of Mfg.: 12-18-68 / Mfg. By: B. Welson Co.'

The coveralls existed for comfort. After launch and the burn that sent the spacecraft toward the Moon, the crew took off their pressure suits and changed into them. Aldrin and Neil Armstrong changed back into pressure suits for the descent to the surface and again for the trip home, but most of the mission was spent in the coveralls.

Dr. Rendezvous

Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. was born January 20, 1930, in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. He graduated third in the West Point class of 1951, joined the Air Force and flew 66 combat missions as a fighter pilot in Korea, shooting down two MiG-15s, the first on May 14, 1953, and the second on June 4, 1953.

He earned a Doctor of Science in astronautics from MIT in January 1963 with a thesis on guidance techniques for crewed orbital rendezvous. NASA selected him in its third astronaut group, making him the first astronaut with a doctorate, and his colleagues nicknamed him 'Dr. Rendezvous.' Buzz, a childhood nickname that came from a sister mispronouncing 'brother,' became his legal first name in 1988.

His first flight was Gemini 12, launched November 11, 1966. When the radar failed during the rendezvous, Aldrin used a sextant and charts he had helped create to guide the docking by hand. He made three spacewalks on the mission, totaling more than five hours outside the spacecraft.

To the Moon and back

Apollo 11 lifted off from Launch Complex 39 at Kennedy Space Center at 9:32 a.m. EDT on July 16, 1969, watched by an estimated one million people along the highways and beaches nearby. Aldrin wore this jacket in the command module Columbia for the three-day trip out.

The lunar module Eagle landed in the Sea of Tranquility at 20:17:40 UTC on July 20 with about 25 seconds of fuel to spare, as Aldrin called out speeds and distances to Armstrong. Aldrin stepped onto the surface at 03:15:16 UTC on July 21, nineteen minutes after Armstrong. In Aldrin's own account, the crew spent 21 hours and 36 minutes on the lunar surface.

Columbia splashed down in the Pacific east of Wake Island on July 24. The astronauts were flown to the carrier USS Hornet and began 21 days of quarantine. On August 13 they rode in ticker-tape parades in New York and Chicago attended by an estimated six million people. That year each of them received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Fifty-three years in a private collection

Aldrin's signed provenance letter says the jacket had been in his private collection 'since we returned home from the Moon on July 24, 1969.' A law passed in 2012 confirmed that Apollo-era astronauts hold title to the mission equipment they kept as mementos.

It came to auction in New York on July 26, 2022, as one of 70 lots from the 92-year-old Aldrin's collection, offered by the Buzz Aldrin Family Trust. The presale estimate was $1 million to $2 million. Bidding opened at $500,000, passed $1 million, and after almost 10 minutes the hammer fell at $2,250,000. With the buyer's premium, an unnamed phone bidder paid $2,772,500.

The price was reported as the highest ever paid at auction for an American space-flown artifact. The auctioneer called it a world record for any space-flown artifact, beating the $2,055,000 paid in 2019 for a gold medallion Neil Armstrong carried to the lunar surface. That wider claim is open to question: the uncrewed Soviet Vostok 3KA-2 capsule, which flew in March 1961, sold at auction in New York in 2011 for $2,882,500.

The rest of the sale told the same story of value. A complete flight plan flown to the Moon brought $819,000, a lunar module activation checklist that landed on the Moon $567,000, and a water dispenser from the lunar module $327,600. The felt-tip pen Aldrin used to push in a broken circuit breaker and arm the ascent engine was the only lot that failed to sell, stalling at $650,000. The whole sale totaled $8,184,578.

How to know it

Aldrin's name tag, reading 'E. Aldrin,' and the Apollo 11 mission emblem are on the left breast. The NASA 'meatball' logo is on the right chest, and a United States flag is on the left shoulder. The jacket closes with snaps at the wrists, waist, collar and front, and a plastic-reinforced port on the upper torso let medical sensor connectors pass through.

Its paper trail is part of its identity. The jacket appears on pages 12 and 92 of the Apollo 11 Stowage List, in the mission's hardware use requests, and in the Apollo 11 post-flight report on suits, which lists both its part number and its serial number.

Three flown coverall jackets went on Apollo 11. Armstrong's and Michael Collins' are in the National Air and Space Museum, along with every other flown Apollo 11 garment, including Aldrin's flown trousers and boots and all three crew members' pressure suits. The museum also holds an unflown training jacket made for Aldrin, serial number 1094. That leaves this jacket, serial 1039, as the only flown garment from the mission available for private ownership.

The numbers

Launch

July 16, 1969, 13:32 UTC (9:32 a.m. EDT), Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center

Lunar landing

July 20, 1969, 20:17:40 UTC, with about 25 seconds of fuel left

Aldrin on the surface

03:15:16 UTC, July 21, 1969, 19 minutes after Armstrong

Time on the lunar surface

21 hours, 36 minutes (per Aldrin's provenance letter)

Splashdown

July 24, 1969, 16:50 UTC, Pacific Ocean east of Wake Island

Quarantine

21 days

Timeline

1. Jan 20, 1930

   Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. is born in Glen Ridge, New Jersey.

2. 1951

   Aldrin graduates third in his class at West Point.

3. Jan 1963

   Aldrin earns a Doctor of Science in astronautics from MIT.

4. Nov 11, 1966

   Gemini 12 launches; Aldrin makes three spacewalks.

5. 1967

   The Apollo 1 fire leads NASA to adopt fireproof Beta cloth for suits and inflight gear.

6. Dec 18, 1968

   B. Welson Co. manufactures the jacket, serial number 1039.

7. Jul 16, 1969

   Apollo 11 launches; after leaving Earth orbit Aldrin changes into this jacket.

8. Jul 20, 1969

   The lunar module Eagle lands at Tranquility Base.

9. Jul 21, 1969

   Aldrin steps onto the Moon, 19 minutes after Armstrong.

10. Jul 24, 1969

    Splashdown in the Pacific. The jacket enters Aldrin's private collection.

11. Aug 13, 1969

    Ticker-tape parades for the crew in New York and Chicago.

12. 1988

    Buzz becomes Aldrin's legal first name.

13. 2012

    A new law confirms Apollo-era astronauts' title to the flown items they kept.

14. Jul 26, 2022

    Sells at auction in New York for $2,772,500.

The world in 1969

• Jan 20, 1969

  Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th president of the United States.

• Mar 2, 1969

  The Concorde makes its first test flight, in Toulouse, France.

• Jun 28, 1969

  The Stonewall riots begin in New York City.

• Aug 15, 1969

  The Woodstock Festival opens near White Lake, New York.

• Oct 15, 1969

  Hundreds of thousands take part in the Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam.

• Oct 29, 1969

  The first message is sent between two computers on ARPANET, the forerunner of the internet.

• Nov 10, 1969

  Sesame Street premieres.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Buzz Aldrin Apollo 11 Inflight Coverall Jacket is number 33 of 100 in the memorabilia entries of the FLOAT 100. 100 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (26 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Beta cloth, the fabric of this jacket, exists because of the Apollo 1 fire; before it, inflight gear was made of materials like nylon.
• The jacket was manufactured on December 18, 1968, seven months before it flew.
• Aldrin took communion on the Moon, the first food and liquid ever consumed there.
• The felt-tip pen Aldrin used to arm Eagle's ascent engine was offered in the same 2022 sale and was the only lot that did not sell.
• Buzz started as a sister's mispronunciation of 'brother' and became Aldrin's legal name in 1988.
• Aldrin's unflown training jacket, serial 1094, is in the Smithsonian; the one that flew, serial 1039, is the one in private hands.