Lot 117
Apollo 11, 1969, FLOWN LUNAR MODULE Rendezvous Charts Checklist (10.5x8.5") This complete checklist consists of 13 sheets (17pp, with three snap rings) and two card covers. Most of the pages have index tabs and some pages have ink notations added during flight .
The front card cover is printed: "Apollo 11 / LM Rendezvous Charts / Part No. SKB32100074 - 392 / S/N 1001". The consignor has notated the inside of the front cover in blue ink: "This LM Rendezvous Charts manual was carried to the lunar surface in "Eagle" during the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969. It was used by Neil Armstrong and myself and contains critical data and charts that assisted our rendezvous maneuvers after leaving the lunar surface on July 21, 1969". It is signed: "Buzz Aldrin, Apollo XI Lunar Module Pilot".
This Checklist represents the last and final piece in the quest to land a man on the moon. The key question to landing a man on the lunar surface was not so much the landing, but how to get that man (men) back to Earth. A lunar orbit and rendezvous was chosen as the way. Armstrong and Aldrin had only one shot to return. Their LM engine had to restart on the lunar surface AND they had to effect a rendezvous with the Command Service Module and Michael Collins who were orbiting the moon while Armstrong and Aldrin were on the lunar surface. Had either action not worked to perfection, the LM would have remained in lunar orbit as a lunar satellite until Apollo 12 went back to the moon.
In Lot 114, we offered the Rendezvous Checklist that was used during the flight of Gemini XII to prove and perfect orbital mechanics (rendezvous techniques). In Lot 116 we had the Lunar Module Timeline Book that covered the period from when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin entered the Lunar Module till they returned to the Command Module in orbit. This lot facilitated that return and was used by Lunar Module Pilot Aldrin to plot the orbit rendezvous of the Lunar Module and the Command Module. Had he not learned the lessons of rendezvous during college (he earned his Doctorate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Orbital Mechanics), and proven them during the flight of Gemini XII, the Apollo 11 flight would have not been the success that it was.
This document is probably the second most important lunar surface document known from the flight of Apollo 11. It is unique, in excellent condition and historically important. What more can you ask?
Estimated Value $250,000 - 350,000.
Ex. the astronaut Buzz Aldrin collection.
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