A charm that spent three days on the surface of the Moon as part of the Apollo 16 mission will sell in Nate D Sanders' latest online sale, which closes on November 21.
 The charm was returned to Rosalie Swim after spending three days on the Moon |
The charm was part of astronaut Charles Duke's personal preference kit on the Orion landing module, and will come with a certificate of authenticity from him. It starts with a minimum bid of $25,000.
The Apollo 16 mission was focused on the collection of rocks from the Moon's Descartes Highlands, which led to the discovery of rock formations made through impact rather than volcanoes, as was previously thought.
The charm was given to Duke by his friend Ron Swim. Duke had promised to carry the charm to the lunar surface and return it to Swim's wife, Rosalie. It is still housed in an original piece of wax paper with the name R Swim handwritten on it.
 All seven members of the Columbia mission were killed on re-entry to the Earth's atmosphere in 2003 |
Further space memorabilia in the sale includes a first day cover signed by each of the crew members from the STS-107 Columbia Space Shuttle mission, which starts a $4,000.
The shuttle exploded on re-entry to Earth in 2003, killing all seven crew members: Rick Husband, Willie McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark and Ilan Ramon.
The cover is postmarked twice from the Kennedy Space Center, and bears six space-related and political stamps in total.
See our superb selection of space memorabilia for sale.
