Buzz Aldrin Used This Humble Felt-Tip Pen to Save the Apollo II Astronauts. It Just Sold for More Than $850,000
In July 1969, a quick-thinking Aldrin used the writing instrument to rearm the engine arm circuit of the lunar module “Eagle” after the switch broke off during the moon landing
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The pen that helped Apollo II astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins return to Earth in 1969 has sold at auction.
After a bidding war between five collectors, the brushed aluminum Duro “Rocket” felt-tip pen brought in $857,600 during a recent Sotheby’s sale in New York, reports the Guardian’s Paul Owen. The winning bidder also got the broken circuit breaker that necessitated Aldrin’s quick-thinking workaround with the pen, which prevented the astronauts from being “stuck on the moon forever,” Aldrin writes in a provenance letter for the artifacts.
Aldrin and Armstrong had just finished a three-hour walk on the moon’s Sea of Tranquility when they decided to get some sleep. Aldrin was settling in when he noticed a small black button on the floor of the lunar module Eagle. After a bit of investigating, the astronauts realized the “little button” was a circuit breaker switch for the engine arm—the “worst… switch to break, since without it we were not going to lift off from the lunar surface,” Aldrin writes in the provenance letter.
The astronauts reported the issue to NASA’s Mission Control in Houston but, in the end, the solution came down to “good old human ingenuity,” Aldrin, now 96, writes. Collins, meanwhile, was circling the moon aboard the command module Columbia.
“While I could have stuck my finger in and reset the switch, there was electricity flowing through the breaker and I did not want to electrocute myself,” Aldrin writes. “I had a plastic marker pen in one of my suit pockets and it fit the breaker opening, so I pushed the marker pen into the circuit breaker, it clicked on and we rearmed the engine arm circuit. Now we could leave the lunar surface, rendezvous with Mike in the command module and head for home. Disaster averted.”
It’s not entirely clear how the circuit breaker switch got broken. One of the men likely hit the panel with his bulky garb, primarily a life-support system, before or after the moonwalk.
“It’s very cumbersome,” Armstrong told ABC News’ David Kerley and Samantha Spitz in 2019. “You’re like the Frankenstein monster. And you have this big backpack on your back.”
In the provenance letter, Armstrong writes that “I think Neil broke the switch off and Neil thinks that I broke the switch.” But in his 2016 book No Dream Is Too High: Life Lessons From a Man Who Walked on the Moon, Aldrin admits that he was probably the one responsible.
“Because the breaker was located on my side of the capsule, I had apparently bumped it,” he writes.
Regardless, Aldrin, Armstrong and Collins ultimately made it back to Earth without incident. But NASA leadership took the broken circuit breaker switch seriously. On subsequent lunar modules, engineers fitted a guard over the circuit breakers to prevent a similar issue from arising in the future, William Barry, NASA’s chief historian, told History.com’s Lesley Kennedy in 2019.
After Aldrin returned from the moon, NASA presented him with the circuit breaker and the pen. Over the years, they’ve been exhibited at both the Seattle Air & Space Museum in Washington and the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
Did you know? How Buzz became Buzz
Buzz Aldrin was born Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr. But when his sister pronounced “brother” as “buzzer,” he became “Buzz.” Aldrin legally changed his name in 1988.
Aldrin tried to auction the circuit breaker and the pen in 2022, but they failed to reach the pre-set reserve and did not sell, Space.com’s Robert Z. Pearlman reported at the time. Meanwhile, the white inflight coverall jacket he wore during the mission sold for $2.8 million during the 2022 sale.
Sotheby’s recent sale also included several other items from Aldrin’s personal collection, including the New Jersey state flag he flew to the moon, his West Point cadet portrait and term papers, and a Buzz Lightyear figurine given to him by Toy Story director John Lasseter. The astronaut also parted ways with two dozen wristwatches, a collection that “spans decades of Aldrin’s life and shows the retired brigadier general’s wide-ranging taste,” writes Oren Hartov for GQ.
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