A dried-out felt-tip marker and a broken circuit breaker switch that helped avert disaster during the Apollo 11 moon landing sold for $857,600 at Sotheby's on July 15, 2026. The items were used by Buzz Aldrin to rearm the ascent engine circuit breaker after its switch top broke off, allowing the astronauts to leave the lunar surface. The sale was part of Sotheby's annual Geek Week auction, which included over 40 items from Aldrin's collection.
The Pen That Saved the Mission
During the Apollo 11 mission, Aldrin realized he or Neil Armstrong had accidentally broken the top off the engine arm circuit breaker switch, which was critical for igniting the ascent engine to return to Earth. Without a functioning switch, the astronauts risked being stranded on the Moon. Aldrin radioed Mission Control for advice, but before engineers could devise a solution, he came up with his own: he used a Duro-brand Rocket felt-tip marker from his suit pocket to push the breaker back in. "I had a plastic felt tip pen in one of my suit pockets and it fit into the breaker opening, so I pushed the marker pen into the circuit breaker, it clicked on, and we rearmed the Engine Arm circuit," Aldrin wrote in a letter accompanying the artifacts. "Now we could leave the lunar surface, rendezvous with Mike Collins in the command module, and head for home. Disaster averted."
Auction History and Price Context
This was the second time the pen and switch had been offered at auction. In 2022, Sotheby's listed them as part of its "Buzz Aldrin: American Icon" sale, but bids reached only $650,000, failing to meet the reserve. This time, the hammer price was $670,000, with the buyer's premium bringing the total to $857,600. The winning bidder was not identified. Despite the high price, the set did not break into the top 10 most expensive space artifacts. That list starts at $1.625 million for a Bulova watch worn on the Moon during Apollo 15 and tops out at $2.8825 million for the Soviet Vostok 3KA-2 capsule. Aldrin's Apollo 11 in-flight jacket sold for $2.7725 million in 2022.
Other Highlights from the Sale
The Sotheby's "Space Exploration" auction featured 134 lots and brought in a total of $2.86 million. Among the other items from Aldrin's collection was a modern Moonshine gold Omega Speedmaster chronograph, one of 24 watches consigned by the Aldrin Family Trust, which sold for $70,400 (retail price is $53,500). The only other lot to reach six figures was the pressure hatch from the Skylab III command module, flown in 1974, which sold for $192,000. A 2012 law reaffirmed that Apollo-era astronauts legally own spacecraft hardware and crew equipment they kept as mementos, allowing them to sell or donate such items.