Buzz Aldrin's Moon-Mission Jacket Sells for Nearly $2.8 Million at Auction

NASA/Space Frontiers/Getty Images; Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images Buzz Aldrin (L) and his jacket

Dozens of Buzz Aldrin's personal possessions have sold at auction — including a jacket he wore during his historic Apollo 11 moon mission, which fetched nearly $2.8 million alone.

Titled Buzz Aldrin: American Icon, the Sotheby's-hosted auction in New York ran through Tuesday and saw 68 of the former astronaut's 69 pieces sell for a total of about $8 million.

The iconic white Teflon-coated jacket, featuring NASA and Apollo 11 emblems on the front, was worn by Aldrin in-flight during the famous 1969 moon-landing mission that also included Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins. (Aldrin, now 92, remains the only living crew member from the mission, with Armstrong dying in 2012 at age 82 and Collins in 2021 at 90.

"Following launch and completion of Translunar Injection, Aldrin and the other Apollo 11 crew members changed out of their pressure garments and into their much more comfortable Inflight Coverall Garments (ICGs), which consisted of a jacket, trousers, and boots fashioned from Beta cloth," the jacket's official listing states. "Aldrin and his crewmates wore these garments for the entire journey to the Moon, with Aldrin and Armstrong changing back into their pressure suits for their descent onto the Lunar Surface, changing back again for their journey home, meaning that the majority of the mission was spent in this garment."

Sotheby's adds that the jacket is "incredibly rare," as it is "the only flown garment from Apollo 11 available for private ownership." All other flown garments are housed in collections at Washington, D.C.'s Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.

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Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images Buzz Aldrin's jacket

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Aldrin says in a letter that he wore the jacket "on our historic journey to the Moon and back home again during the Apollo 11 mission."

"During launch, and while on the Moon, we wore our full pressure garments, however we spent the majority of the mission in our much more comfortable ICGs, donning them both for our 3-day journey to the Moon, as well as the 3 day trip back," he added, per Sotheby's.

Aldrin went on to say that the jacket "has been in my private collection since we returned home from the Moon on July 24, 1969."

Aside from the jacket, items like a "Go Army, Beat Navy" banner he brought on his Gemini XII spacewalk and exposed to the vacuum of space, a flown lunar surface checklist, flight-plan pages and more sold as part of the auction.

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Along with some of the items that Aldrin carried with him into space are some of the mementos he earned on Earth, including an MTV VMA award statuette (sold for $88,200) and his Presidential Medal of Freedom (sold for $277,200).

Among the items to sell for the highest prices were an Apollo 11 summary flight plan ($819,000), an Apollo 11 flown lunar surface checklist ($567,000) and Aldrin's New Frontier Congressional Gold Medal ($226,800).

"After deep consideration, the time felt right to share these items with the world, which for many are symbols of a historical moment, but for me have always remained personal mementos of a life dedicated to science and exploration," Aldrin said in a statement shared with CNN.

He added, "I hope that this collection offers some insight into what it has been like to be Buzz Aldrin."