posted 05-20-2026 06:47 PM               

The 559 lot auction includes 20 pieces from the Rusty Schweickart collection benefiting the B612 Foundation. Annalise Schweickart, granddaughter of the astronaut, wrote an introduction to the sale and its featured items.

Spaceflight leaves no room for excess. On missions like the Apollo 9 mission, every ounce was accounted for, every object scrutinized.

And yet, astronauts were permitted a small exception in the form of a Personal Preference Kit (PPK)—a limited set of personal items they could bring with them into orbit. These tokens were chosen not for utility, but for meaning. Flags, pins, medallions, and notes (among a myriad of other miscellany like tree seeds) were carried into orbit with intention, often meant to be shared, gifted, or preserved as part of the mission's legacy.

Therefore, a flown item is defined not just by where it has been, but by the fact that it was chosen to go at all...