Apollo 14 Beta patch makes $6,600 at space auction

An Apollo 14 Beta cloth patch has sold for $6,660 at the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation's fall auction.

The superb space flown item came from the personal collection of the 1971 mission's lunar module pilot, Edgar Mitchell.

Apollo 14 Beta patch
The space-flown Apollo 14 patch made $6,600

Apollo 14 was the third mission to land on the Moon.

The patch was printed on cloth fashioned from fireproof Beta fibres coated with Teflon - the same material used on the outer layer of the mission's spacesuits.

Its value was enhanced by an accompanying signature and handwritten inscription from Mitchell: "This mission patch was flown to the moon aboard Kittyhawk [the command module] on Apollo 14".

In contrast, regular space flown Apollo 14 patches with accompanying Mitchell signatures achieve around $1,500, confirming the attraction of the Beta patches with collectors.

The August 23 auction also featured an Apollo 11-flown Kapton foil, accompanied by a signed photograph of Buzz Aldrin undertaking his moonwalk. It sold for $3,300.

The foil formed part of Apollo 11's Columbia command module and provided some of its thermal protection.

Most of the foil was burned away on re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere, with NASA technicians keeping hold of remaining fragments as mementoes.

You can view our stunning range of space memorabilia for sale here.

The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation was formed by the original Mercury 7 astronauts, to provide scholarships for college students who "exhibit exceptional performance in the science or engineering field".

It has awarded close to $3.5m to students across the US, with the auctions providing a tremendous help.

There was also a strong performance from a pair of gloves used by mechanic Don Black to close the Gemini 12 capsule ahead of the 1966 mission. They achieved $5,900.

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