Collectibles

Gene Cernan's Apollo 17 EVA Cuff Checklist poised to set auction records

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Gene Cernan's Apollo 17 Flown Lunar Surface-Used EVA-3 Cuff Checklist is set to sell at RR Auction on 21 October 2021
RR Auction / NASA
Gene Cernan's Apollo 17 Flown Lunar Surface-Used EVA-3 Cuff Checklist is set to sell at RR Auction on 21 October 2021
RR Auction / NASA
Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan’s parting words from the lunar surface on 11 December 1972. This EVA-3 Cuff Checklist can be clearly seen on his left wrist.
NASA
Gene Cernan's Apollo 17 EVA-3 Cuff Checklist
NASA
Gene Cernan's Apollo 17 EVA-3 Cuff Checklist
NASA
This 'First on the Moon' book signed in full by all three crew from Apollo 11. Accompanied by certificates of authenticity from Novaspace for the Aldrin and Collins signings, as well as a photo taken at the time of Aldrin's signing. A beautiful fully signed book that commemorates NASA's landmark moment.


RR Auction
Buzz Aldrin's Apollo 11 PPK communion bag
RR Auction
Buzz Aldrin's Apollo 11 Flown LM Lunar Surface Checklist Page
RR Auction
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It’s coming up 50 years since mankind last set foot on the Moon. In perhaps the most privileged activity ever available to our species, just 12 human beings have done it, the first being Neil Armstrong on 21 July 1969 and the last was Gene Cernan on 11 December 1972.

Two landmark moments in space we no doubt all remember, are the book-end ceremonies of stepping foot onto another celestial body for the first time (Armstrong’s “one small step for man”) and Gene Cernan’s final step on the moon and mankind’s departing message: "Here man completed his first exploration of the Moon, December 1972 A.D. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind.”

Apollo 17 Commander Gene Cernan’s parting words from the lunar surface on 11 December 1972. This EVA-3 Cuff Checklist can be clearly seen on his left wrist.
NASA

Now a very prominent space suit “accessory” worn on the Moon by the last Apollo moonwalker is being auctioned on the internet with bids closing later this week, and it looks like records will be broken. Estimated to sell for US$800,000 plus, bidding was poised to go well past that mark with 48 hours to go, sitting on $370,064 after 19 bids.

Cernan wore this cuff checklist on his wrist for the duration of the final EVA of Apollo 17, exposing it to the lunar environment for 7 hours and 15 minutes.

The cuff checklist is a comprehensive guide for the extravehicular activity, offering preparation procedures, simplified maps of traverse routes and landmarks.

Gene Cernan's Apollo 17 EVA-3 Cuff Checklist
NASA

The checklist occupies a special place in Apollo history – it not only provided instructions for man's last moonwalk – but held the handwritten notes for the last words spoken from the surface of the Moon.

This historic speech echoed the words of Neil Armstrong from three years earlier: mankind had made its giant leap, and Commander Cernan looked forward to a peaceful, hopeful future.

Gene Cernan's Apollo 17 EVA-3 Cuff Checklist
NASA

Cernan's cuff checklists for EVA-1 and EVA-2 were sold privately, making this the first – and most historically significant – to be publicly offered.

Source: RR Auction

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2 comments
Aermaco
I cant believe the billionaire rocketeers will not buy up most of the key space history for themselves. If so they need to make space museums for us all on into the future.
Chris Coles
Once was given his phone number by Len Sugerman and rang him up. He was kind and courteous. Later I heard that he gave his later life to answering such phone calls, with great personal cost to himself.