Artifacts From The Astronauts Explored This week at LiveAuctionTalk.com

Online, October 11, 2009 (Newswire.com) - Santa Fe, Oct. 11, 2009 -- The Sea of Tranquility stretched as far as the eye could see. It was hundreds of miles wide. With seemingly few craters, it was smooth, cold and silent.

In twelve minutes two of the Apollo 11 astronauts would be touching down on a small corner of the Sea of Tranquility in the very first moon landing. The world waited for this moment on July 20, 1969. The astronauts would be the first men to leave human footprints on another celestial body.

The orbit and descent seemed calm.

The lunar module Eagle was 33,500 feet from the moon when the master alarm sounded. It went off with all the intensity of a fire alarm in a crowded elevator.

What's going on? Were the men in danger? Should they land? Should they abort? Would the Eagle explode? Minutes dragged on as the men waited for Mission Control to tell them what to do...

The Apollo 11 astronauts wanted the mission patch they wore on their space suits for the historic journey to be symbolic. They picked the bald eagle not only to honor their lunar module Eagle, but also because the eagle was a symbol of the United States.

The eagle on their patches carried an olive branch as a symbol of peace. The branch, they said, denoted the peaceful nature of their Apollo 11 mission.

On July 16, Bonhams, New York, featured a selection of Apollo 11 flown-material in its Space sale. One of the beta cloth eagle emblems carried on Apollo 11 sold in the auction.

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