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  [RR Auction] Space and Aviation (Oct 2019)

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Author Topic:   [RR Auction] Space and Aviation (Oct 2019)
Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-03-2019 06:37 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
RR Auction's next Space & Aviation auction begins Oct. 11, 2019.

The lots, which include the Don Eyles' Apollo computer collection and NASA photographer M. Edward Thomas collection, are now available for preview.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-03-2019 06:43 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Lot 2041, a copy of the Book of Mormon that was carried to the moon on Apollo 16 in 1972, is going on display in Utah before being auctioned, reports The Salt Lake Tribune.
Faith in Space — Free display of the Book of Mormon that flew on Apollo 16.

Thursday, Oct. 3, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Joseph Smith Memorial Building, The Presidents Room, 15 E. South Temple, Salt Lake City.

Friday, Oct. 4, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., B. Ashworth's Rare Books, Provo Town Square, Suite 3, 65 N University Ave.

Ianhetho
Member

Posts: 109
From: Bogangar NSW Australia
Registered: May 2018

posted 10-03-2019 06:45 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ianhetho   Click Here to Email Ianhetho     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Can anybody offer more information on the unflown Apollo spacesuit liquid cooling garment water connector, item 2239?

I want to know where exactly is it on the spacesuit and is it visible when the suit is worn.

Spacehardware
Member

Posts: 125
From: Durley
Registered: Jan 2008

posted 10-03-2019 06:54 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Spacehardware   Click Here to Email Spacehardware     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This particular connector is easily identifiable on both the A7L and A7LB suits as the only connector with two gold tabs rather than the three for all other connectors.

On the A7L it is the top right connector when you look at the suit, on the A7LB it is the first blue connector on the left as you look at the suit. It uses a thin shim/ring with a distinctive square "notch" to hold the ITMG to the connector, the body of the connector being securely mounted to the pressure suit by an inner mounting ring with gasket (both missing) specific to this part.

Not sure what the part marked PN2407 with the AL logo is — usually this is where the connector from the cooling suit fits, oriented by the notch in the connector rim.

Hope this helps and good luck if you decide to go for it. Happy collecting!!

Ianhetho
Member

Posts: 109
From: Bogangar NSW Australia
Registered: May 2018

posted 10-04-2019 02:10 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Ianhetho   Click Here to Email Ianhetho     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Thank you. That's a great help.

4allmankind
Member

Posts: 1043
From: Dallas
Registered: Jan 2004

posted 10-04-2019 09:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for 4allmankind   Click Here to Email 4allmankind     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Love the Conrad launch morning check as I vividly recall the fun press that surrounded the Armstrong check sale. It's neat to see what is likely the last item signed before a lunar flight.

Is anyone aware of any other launch morning signed checks other than Armstrong, and now Conrad?

Larry McGlynn
Member

Posts: 1255
From: Boston, MA
Registered: Jul 2003

posted 10-08-2019 02:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Larry McGlynn   Click Here to Email Larry McGlynn     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Last year I was helping Don Eyles at his home. He has an original Apollo Guidance Computer from his days at the MIT Instrumentation Lab working on the lunar guidance software. He has put it up for auction at RR. It is a cool piece.

He donated his DSKY to the MIT Museum (they have a AGC, but no DSKY). These are such beautifully built pieces of equipment.

spacekid2
Member

Posts: 199
From: San Diego, CA, USA
Registered: Jul 2004

posted 10-13-2019 07:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for spacekid2   Click Here to Email spacekid2     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I wanted to make all cS members aware that item #2547 is not a real food package because I made this package and sold it on eBay as a "replica." I reached out to RR Auction about this fact and they said they would update the description but for some reason decided to not update the description to indicate that this is not a real NASA food package.

They have it listed as a Russian food package, which is also wrong. I was very disappointed in their decision to still sell it as is. Someone has bid $200 dollars for the package but I could not just stand by and not say something. — Paul Schultz

Hoonin
Member

Posts: 12
From: Wyandotte, Michigan, U.S.
Registered: Mar 2019

posted 10-14-2019 12:04 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Hoonin   Click Here to Email Hoonin     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I am selling some items from my collection in this auction. I currently have direct contact with the people in charge of the listings, I will reach out to them as well.

BLivingston
Member

Posts: 60
From: Boston,Ma. USA
Registered: Jan 2010

posted 10-14-2019 09:13 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for BLivingston   Click Here to Email BLivingston     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by spacekid2:
I reached out to RR Auction...
We are grateful that you reached out to us because authenticity is extremely important to RR Auction. After notifying the consignor over the weekend, the replica food item has been withdrawn from the auction.

spaced out
Member

Posts: 3110
From: Paris, France
Registered: Aug 2003

posted 10-18-2019 07:11 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for spaced out   Click Here to Email spaced out     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
One day before the end of the auction I'm agonizing over whether to increase my top bid on one item from $578 to $700 — looking at my bids on other items, looking at the listing again and again... $578 plus fees feels like quite a lot but not bad... $700 plus fees maybe I'm going to feel like I've payed too much? Finally, reluctantly, going for it...

Checking the results Friday morning the lot sold for over $5,000!

I probably did basically the same thing for half a dozen lots with much the same result.

Overall some very nice items in this sale but apparently there are plenty of deep-pocketed collectors out there these days. I have to wonder whether some of the bidders these days actually have their own rocket companies.

Tallpaul
Member

Posts: 153
From: Rocky Point, NY, USA
Registered: Feb 2012

posted 10-18-2019 10:25 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Tallpaul   Click Here to Email Tallpaul     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
There were some definite bargains. It's interesting that some items that traditionally have sold for much higher prices sold for much less than what I would have expected. For example the Apollo 13 Robbins medal at $2,500 and an Apollo 17 insurance cover for $900.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-19-2019 05:48 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
RR Auction release
Apollo Guidance Computer sold for nearly $280K at auction

An extremely rare Block II prototype Apollo Guidance Computer originating from MIT and Apollo Hero Don Eyles sold for $279,858 according to Boston-based RR Auction.

The Apollo Guidance Computer was a technical marvel: in the era of room-sized computers, NASA allocated one cubic foot on their spacecraft for the electric brain that would be responsible for guiding humans to the lunar surface and safely returning them home. It was up to the best and brightest at the MIT Instrumentation Lab to make it fit. Rather than using the large vacuum tubes or big discrete transistors typical in computers of the time, MIT engineers pioneered the application of integrated circuits — microchips — to accomplish the same task in a diminutive package. During 1963, the Instrumentation Lab consumed 60 percent of the integrated circuit production in the United States, and by 1964 Fairchild Industries had shipped more than 100,000 ICs for use in the Apollo program.

The computer hardware was thus a combination of cutting-edge technology and old-school craftsmanship: while these innovative, mass-produced chips made their way into the AGC's logic modules, the computer's mission-critical software was stored in handmade 'rope memory,' contained inside its fixed memory modules, which could not be erased, altered, or corrupted. This rope memory required absolute precision and was sewn by workers recruited from local textile factories: copper wire was woven in and around ring-shaped magnetic cores, with each wire threaded through the core representing a binary "1," and each wire bypassing the core representing a "0." It took eight weeks for the workers to weave the memory for a single flight computer, at a cost of $15,000 per module.

As a 27-year-old MIT computer expert, Don Eyles had the unequaled distinction of saving the Apollo 14 mission. A quick-thinking mathematical genius, he worked at Draper Labs, the place commissioned by NASA to write the computer code that would take us to the moon. Eyles saw the monumental Apollo program through from beginning to end — Apollo 5 through Apollo 17 — and chronicled his incredible experiences in his book, "Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir."

"Don Eyles greatest achievement was the computer code that he had written for the Lunar descent of Apollo 11, so it's not surprising that the Apollo Guidance Computer achieved such an impressive figure,¡± said Bobby Livingston, Executive VP at RR Auction.

Highlights from the sale include, but are not limited by:

  • Dave Scott's Apollo 15 Lunar surface-worn OPS Bracket containing a secret pouch that carried souvenir flags sold for $50,000.

  • Apollo Display and Keyboard Assembly (DSKY) sold for $50,000.

  • Gemini Attitude and Rotational Hand Controller sold for $43,751.

  • Dave Scott's Lunar Orbit-Flown Apollo 15 CSM Launch Checklist sold for $37,500.

  • Space Shuttle attitude director indicator sold for $37,022.

  • Apollo 15 Flown Command Module Endeavour rescue arrow from Crew Hatch sold for $34,950.

  • Cernan's heavily annotated 53-page CSM Checklist flown on Apollo 17 sold for $34,371.

  • Apollo 11 Rope by Don Eyles Assembly Listing containing the Lunar Module computer source code for the Apollo 11 mission sold for $24,347.

  • Nikolai Budarin's Flown Omega X-33 watch sold for $22,000.

  • Northwest Africa (NWA) 6963 Martian meteorite end cut sold for $20,000.
The Space & Aviation Auction from RR Auction began on October 11 and concluded on October 17.

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