One small step for man, one giant addition to your treasure trove of collectibles.
The only photo of Neil Armstrong on the moon is heading to auction next month via Bonhams. The sale, For All Mankind: The Artistic Legacy of Early Space Exploration, will include 449 other NASA photographs—some of which are previously unknown—from the collection of Victor Martin-Malburet, a space historian who uncovered some of the rare snapshots in archives and collections of former NASA engineers over 25 years.
Taken by Buzz Aldrin, the second person to walk on the moon, the Armstrong photo shows the famed astronaut standing beside the Lunar Module Eagle, which is what took the crew into space on the Apollo 11 mission. Expected to fetch between $20,000 and $27,000, the image was discovered 17 years after the 1969 historic trip made Armstrong the first man to walk on the moon.
The astronaut was also behind the camera on the Apollo 11 mission. The first snapshot Armstrong took on the lunar surface is also up for grabs in the auction, estimated to hammer down for between $7,600 and $11,000. After taking that famed first step, the astronaut was supposed to collect a contingency lunar sample in case of an emergency return, Bonhams says. Instead, Armstrong decided to take the first photo on the moon.
The first photo taken by Armstrong on the moon.
Bonhams
Another notable memento up for grabs is the first photograph of Earthrise, which is an image that shows both the Earth and part of the moon’s surface. Astronaut William Anders took the black-and-white snapshot during the Apollo 8 mission on Christmas Eve in December 1968; it’s expected to fetch anywhere from to $13,000 to $19,000.
“The Apollo astronauts captured humanity’s greatest dream through their cameras,” Sabine Cornette de Saint Cyr, head of the Bonhams sale, said in a press statement. “Their photographs will forever symbolize the beginning of our expansion into the universe. Today, space exploration is once again a burning topic. It was only natural for Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr to present these undisputed masterpieces of the 20th century to collectors, as they continue to fascinate and enrich our imagination.”
The first Earthrise photograph, taken by William Anders
Alongside these historic images, other space collector’s items going under the hammer include the first selfie in space, taken by Buzz Aldrin on the 1966 Gemini 12 mission ($8,700 to $13,000); the first photograph taken in space by humans, which was captured by John Glenn during Friendship 7’s first orbit in 1962 ($4,400 to $6,700); and the first snapshot of a human in space, taken by James McDivitt during the first American spacewalk on Gemini 4 ($1,600 to $2,200).
For All Mankind: The Artistic Legacy of Early Space Exploration will be held online from April 14 to 28 in Paris, so you won’t have to wait long to hopefully add the memorabilia to your collection.
You could take some stellar space photographs for yourself soon enough, thanks to an wide variety of space-tourism programs that are on the horizon. Virgin Galactic’s new six-person spacecraft is gearing up to take civilians to space in the fall of 2026, while Space Perspective’s Spaceship Neptune balloon also hopes to have consumers hop aboard next year. And Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin also has its eyes set on the stars. Best get your camera ready, then.
