Neil Armstrong signed flight plan soars to $51,000 at PBA Galleries

Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the surface of the moon, inscribed the front cover of the flight plan to NBC News correspondent Dean Mell. The flight plan has several ink notations, most noting current time in relation to the hour into the mission.

According to Mell, flight plans were provided to the various news correspondents prior to the flight to be used for reference during broadcasts. Armstrong inscribed this volume for Mell, at a post flight news conference. Signed flight plans are rarely seen and Armstrong has since ceased to autograph material. According to current reports his autograph is the most valuable of any living person.

Also in the sale was the final version of the NASA flight plan for Apollo 13, signed on the front cover by Commander John Lovell, which sold for $7,800. Intended to be the third manned space flight to land on the moon, the mission had to be aborted after an oxygen tank ruptured, severely damaging the spacecraft's electrical system and crippling the service module upon which the Command Module depended. To conserve its batteries and the oxygen needed for the last hours of flight, the crew instead used the Lunar Module's resources as a "lifeboat" during the return trip to Earth. Despite great hardship caused by limited power, loss of cabin heat, shortage of potable water and the critical need to jury-rig the carbon dioxide removal system, the crew returned safely to Earth on April 17, 1970.

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