Apollo 11 Manual for Sale

The manual that the Apollo 11 astronauts used during their lunar landing is up for sale this summer. I was tempted to title this post "If I had a million dollars", but a million wouldn't be enough.

This lunar module timeline book was used by the two U.S. astronauts to land Eagle, the lunar module that allowed for exploration of the moon’s surface. This rare cardstock-covered manual contains 44 three-hole-punched pages of detailed instructions for the launch and descent of Eagle.

The time period that the book covers is the entire Lunar Module Eagle portion of the Apollo 11 mission, says Christina Geiger, head of books and manuscripts at Christie’s America.

his step-by-step manual offers rare insight into the process of conducting the first moon landing, particularly the fact that the NASA astronauts weren’t completely certain their mission could be completed. In the book, there’s a section that gives details based on whether they decide to stay or not stay on the moon. “It’s almost like a choose your own adventure,” Geiger says. “They have a box with steps to abort the mission [if necessary].”

I hope that whoever has deep enough pockets to purchase this significant piece of space history will put it on public display.