3 Meteorites from 2013 Chelyabinsk Explosion Over Russia, for Sale

A fragments of the Feb. 15, 2013, Russian meteorite will hit the auction block this month.

Credit: Heritage Auctions

When a meteor exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia on Feb. 15, 2013, many of world's most avid meteorite collectors were gathered on the other side of the world, in Arizona, at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show.

"A lot of the meteorite guys were scrambling to leave the show early to go to Russia," said Craig Kissick of Heritage Auctions.

This month, Heritage Auctions is selling three pieces of the Chelyabinsk space rock as part of its latest natural history sale.



The meteor blast produced a shockwave that shattered windows and injured more than 1,000 people in Chelyabinsk region.

Scientists who have analyzed samples of the Chelyabinsk meteorite have said it appears to be an ordinary chondrite, the most common type of meteorite found on Earth.

"I wouldn't consider it that attractive," Kissick said, but the fragments have stirred up interest among collectors because they are tied to the biggest meteorite blast in more than a century, and perhaps the most witnessed one on record.

Opening bids for the three Chelyabinsk meteorite fragments start at $500, $2,500 and $4,000. The sale will take place on Sept. 28 at Heritage Auction's Nature and Science Signature Auction in Dallas, Texas.

Soviet space capsule Vozvrashchayemi for auction in Brussels

A women stands next to the Soviet space capsule Vozvrashchayemi in Brussels, ahead of its auction on May 7, 2014. 

Credit: AFP/John Thys

For those who have everything, how about a Soviet-era space capsule dating back to the 1970s, when it carried three cosmonauts into space?

German firm Lempertz unveiled plans Wednesday for what it says is the first such auction in Europe, with the capsule expected to fetch up to 1.4 million euros ($1.9 million) on May 7.

"It was developed during the Soviet-US space race, part of the Cold War," the auction house said.

A British company first bought the capsule, which was also used for a short unmanned mission in 1978 and then for training, it said.

It then decided to sell, handing it to Lempertz to manage.

The capsule has been extensively restored, removing all trace of the searing burn marks it picked up on re-entry to the earth's atmosphere.

Now it is a newly painted pristine white, measuring some 2.2 metres (seven feet) high and 2.8 metres in diameter, weighing in at nearly two tons.

A circular door opens into the cramped compartment where the cosmonauts sat during their voyage around the earth.

Lempertz said it was organising the sale to mark the opening of its office in Brussels, aiming to attract attention with the highly unusual lot, known as Vozvrashchayemi Apparat (VA), or "re-entry capsule" in Russian.

Besides the capsule, also going under the hammer are its command panels plus two more recent space suits, estimated to fetch up to 60,000 euros each.

Hasselblad 500EL Unique camera from NASA's moon missions sold at auction

A Hasselblad 500EL "Data Camera HEDC Nasa" Jim Irwin Lunar Module Pilot camera, dated from 1968, used on the moon during Apollo lunar programs is sold at an auction for 550,000 euros ($760,000) at the Westlicht Gallery in Vienna on March 21, 2014

The Hasselblad 500EL is the only camera to return from NASA's moon missions in 1969-1972.

It was sold at an auction in Vienna Saturday for 550,000 euros ($760,000), far outdoing its estimated price.

The boxy silver-coloured camera, which was sold to a telephone bidder, was initially valued at 150,000-200,000 euros.

The Hasselblad model was one of 14 cameras sent to the moon as part of NASA's Apollo 11-17 missions but was the only one to be brought back.

As a rule, the cameras, which weighed several kilos and could be attached to the front of a space suit, were abandoned to allow the astronauts to bring back moon rock, weight being a prime concern on the missions.

"It has moon dust on it... I don't think any other camera has that," Peter Coeln, owner of the Westlicht gallery which organised the auction, said of the rare piece.

The camera, which was being sold by a private collector, was used by astronaut Jim Irwin to take 299 pictures during the Apollo 15 mission in July-August 1971.

A small plate inside is engraved with the number 38, the same number that appears on Irwin's NASA snapshots.

Close to 600 objects were on sale on Saturday at the Westlicht gallery, which is the world's largest auction house for cameras.

It has overseen the sale of some of the most expensive photographic equipment in history, including a 1923 Leica camera prototype that sold for 2.16 million euros, a world record.

NASA Moon Camera: Hasselblad Used by Apollo Astronaut Up for Auction

A 70-millimeter Hasselblad EDC camera claimed to be the camera used on the moon by Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin in 1971 will be auctioned in March by Austria's WestLicht Gallery.

Credit: WestLicht Gallery

A camera purported to have been used by the eighth man to walk on the moon while he was exploring the lunar surface in 1971 is now heading for the auction block in Austria, the sale's organizers announced on Thursday (Jan. 30)

A 70-millimeter Hasselblad Electric Data Camera (EDC), described by the WestLicht Gallery in Vienna as having flown to the moon and back on NASA's Apollo 15 mission, is included in the gallery's March 22 auction of vintage and collectible cameras.

The lunar-flown Hasseblad is said to have been used by astronaut James Irwin, as identified by the registration number "38" on a small plate found inside the camera.

Peter Coeln

"[The plate number] is 100-percent proof that this camera is the real thing and really was on the moon," Peter Coeln, owner of the Westlicht Gallery, told the AFP wire service.

Coeln said the camera is estimated to sell for $200,000 to $270,000 (150,000 to 200,000 euros).

The number 38 appears on the camera's Reseau plate, a transparent piece of glass used to superimpose calibration crosshairs on the photographs taken with the camera.

The "38" also appeared on each of the 299 photos captured by Irwin.

NASA Questions Commander Lovell’s Right to Auction Apollo 13 Checklist

NASA is questioning whether James Lovell, an Apollo 13 commander, has the right to sell a 70-page checklist that contains his handwritten calculations that were vital in guiding the damaged spacecraft back to Earth.

The rare document was sold by Lovell for more than $388,000 at an auction in Dallas in November 2011. The amount raised was around 15 times more than the estimated price value.

However, NASA now has laid its claims to the document that assisted the return of the Apollo 13 team to the Earth after an oxygen tank in the craft exploded.

The recent event comes a year after NASA filed a federal lawsuit against Edgar Mitchell, the Apollo 14 astronaut, obliging him to return a camera used on his Moon mission in 1971. The camera has since been placed in a museum.

Apart from the checklist, the agency has also raised questions about the hand glove worn by NASA astronaut Alan Shepard which fetched over $19,000, a lunar module identification plate valued at $13,000 and a hand controller sold by Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweikart which was auctioned for $22,700 at the Heritage auctions.

NASA has, however, interpreted the inquiry in a different manner. "We haven't filed a claim against (the checklist) but what we have done is notify the auction house that we are seeking proof of ownership of the artefact," NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs claimed.

The checklist sold by Lovell has gained great popularity particularly after the release of the 1995 film "Apollo 13" where actor Tom Hanks portrayed the role of Lovell.

NASA Halts Heritage Auction of Apollo 13 checklist

Heritage, we may have a problem. That's more or less what NASA told Heritage Auctions of Dallas, Texas recently, in response to their record-setting, $388,375 sale of astronaut James Lovell's Apollo 13 flown checklist.

"NASA has made a claim against astronaut Jim Lovell, claiming that he does not have title to the checklist," Greg Rohan, Heritage's president but the space agency interprets its inquiry differently.

Judge Denies NASA Astronaut's Motion to Dismiss Moon Camera Lawsuit

This Data Acquisition Camera, which was flown to the moon's surface by Apollo 14 in 1971, is now the focus of a lawsuit against the astronaut who tried to sell it.

CREDIT: Bonhams

Just who owns a camera flown to the moon, the astronaut who saved it as a souvenir or the government that wanted it left on the lunar surface, will need to be settled in court, a judge ruled this week.

U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hurley denied Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell's motion to dismiss the lawsuit brought against him by the U.S. government last June. At contention, a 16-millimeter data acquisition camera (DAC) that Mitchell returned to Earth in 1971 and then attempted to sell 40 years later.

The government contended it has no record of the camera being given to Mitchell, who elected to remove it from the lunar module (LM) before parting ways with the spacecraft and returning to earth. The LM, which Mitchell and Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard used to land on and launch off the moon, was destroyed after it was allowed to fall back to the lunar surface.

Apollo 14 astronaut Ed Mitchell

Mitchell's attorney argued that too many years have gone by for the government to pursue the camera as stolen and besides, it was given to the now 80-year-old moonwalker as a gift in line with NASA's then-policies governing spent equipment.

Judge Hurley ruled that the statute of limitations as cited in Mitchell's motion and as defined by the state of Florida where the case is being heard did not apply to the federal government's claim.

NASA's Missing Moon Dust Is Found at Auction House

Buzz Aldrin

It was one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind, and a lot of people wanted a piece of it.

Now, some 40 years after moon dust brought back from the Apollo 11 mission went missing, it was recovered at a St. Louis auction house and returned to the Johnson Space Center in Houston this week.

"It's a speck — the size of a fingertip," said David Kols of Regency-Superior auction house, where the dust had been placed for sale.

"But it's lunar material, and since we're not going back to the moon in my lifetime or yours, that makes it worth a lot to some people."

The U.S. Attorney's office in St. Louis, which announced the recovered moon dust on Thursday, said that investigators with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) believed the dust had come from the film cartridge of a camera used by astronauts on humanity's first trip to the moon in 1969.

The dust was lifted from the cartridge using a 1-inch (2.5 cm) piece of clear tape. Somehow, it reached the black market and was sold in 2001, NASA investigators believe, to a German collector who cut up the tape into tiny slivers, rather than return it to the U.S. government.

When investigators from both NASA and the U.S. Attorney's office noticed moon dust listed for sale in St. Louis, they shut down the transaction with the cooperation of the auction house and the seller.

The widow trying to sell the dust — her name was not released — said she didn't know where her late husband had purchased it. She "immediately and graciously agreed to relinquish it back to the American people," the U.S. Attorney's office said.

The auction house had estimated its value at between $1,000 and $1,500.

Mars Meteorite up for auction at Bonhams & Butterfields

Go on make a bid to own a little piece of another planet! NB: This is not the actual size!


A metorite from Mars is on display before sale at auction at Bonhams & Butterfields.

The Martian meteorite, discovered in the Mojave Desert in 1999, is composed of basaltic shergotite, weighs 3.64 grams and has an estimated sale price of $7,000-9,000