The video recordings of one of humankind’s greatest achievements, landing on the moon, have sold at auction for $1.8 million.

Sotheby’s held the auction on July 20, the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

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#AuctionUpdate Moments ago in our New York salesroom, on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, three original NASA videotape recordings of that historic event sold for $1.8 million – more than 8,000 times the price paid for the tapes at a government surplus auction in 1976 by then-NASA intern Gary George. Unrestored, unenhanced, and unremastered, the videotapes represent the earliest, sharpest, and most accurate surviving video images of man’s first steps on the moon. At a combined run time of 2 hours and 24 minutes, the tapes capture everything from Neil Armstrong’s declaration: "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” marking the historic moment the first human set foot on another world, to the “long distance phone call” with the President of the United States, and the planting of the American flag. #SothebysinSpace #Apollo50 #Apollo50th #Apollo11 #SpaceExploration #MoonLanding

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The lot auctioned was described as follows: At a combined run time of 2 hours and 24 minutes, the tapes capture everything from Neil Armstrong’s declaration: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind,” marking the historic moment the first human set foot on another world, to the “long distance phone call” with the President of the United States, and the planting of the American flag.

The tapes were preserved by Gary George who worked as an intern at the NASA Johnson Space Center in June of 1973.


Cover image via NASA


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