Astronaut Experiences, Artifacts Auctioned to Benefit Students
Astronaut Scholarship Foundation and collectSPACE.com Organize Sale to Raise Scholarships
The Astronaut Scholarship Foundation's first ever Astronaut Experiences and Space Memorabilia auction was a resounding success with over $58,000 in bids. The funds raised will be awarded to college students who exhibit motivation, imagination, and exceptional performance in the science or engineering field of their major.
"The response to our first auction was better than we could have hoped," said Linn LeBlanc, Associate Director of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation. "We are very grateful to our astronaut members who participated and to the collectors and our supporters who bid very generously."
Bidding began Monday, May 21, on the website collectSPACE.com and continued through Saturday, May 24 when an in-person Silent Auction took over at an astronaut-studded gala in Washington, DC. Many of the 18 astronauts who participated by consigning items or experiences to the auction were present.
When the auction closed, the highest bid recorded was for a model of the Mercury spacecraft that was once the personal property of the first American in space Alan Shepard. Shepard left the model to the ASF to raise funds for scholarships, which it did to the tune of $22,750.
Other highlights of the auction results:
- $5,250 raised for a dinner for four with Apollo 13 commander James Lovell and his wife at his son's restaurant in Chicago
- $2,630 raised for a round of golf of Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot Al Worden
- $4000 raised for a segment of wiring removed by Fred Haise from the Apollo 13 Lunar Module before it was jettisoned and the crew returned safely to Earth
- $3500 raised for an Apollo 13 patch printed on fire-resistant beta cloth, flown on the mission and inscribed James Lovell
- $1300 for a VIP tour for four of the Kennedy Space Center with Space Shuttle pilot Robert Crippen as their guide