Directly from the Personal Collection of Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin

FLOWN APOLLO 11 DATA CARD DETAILING ROCKET T🦩HRUSTERS NECESSARY TO🍷 GET TO AND FROM THE LUNAR SURFACE.

BUZZ ALDRIN'S provenance letter reads, in full: "On July 16th, 1969, Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and I lifted off from Pad 39A at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on our journey to perform humankind's first landing on the Moon at the Sea of Tranquility.

This 'DAP Data Load' data card reminded us of the required inputs for the Digital Autopilot (DAP). The DAP and the Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) selected which rocket thruster should fire or made any corrections in the event of a thruster failure, to maintain the Lunar Module’s course for landing on the lunar surface. 

The columns under the 'DAP Data Load' title show how the quad thrusters on the Eagle’s ascent stage needed to be configured in the AGC during different portions of the Lunar Module’s flight, starting with 'staged' (the Lunar Module has jettisoned the descent stage), ‘unstaged' (the Lunar Module still has the descent stage), and 'docked' (while attached to the Command and Service Module (CSM). The DAP controls the use of the thrusters during descent to and ascent from the lunar surface.

This 'DAP Data Load' data card is one of the few objects carried to the lunar surface and is also a rare example of an astronaut flight-certified object used on the first landing on the Moon."

REFERENCES:

NASA. Apollo 11 Stowage List. Mission AS 506 CM 107/LM-5. Houston, Texas: Manned Spacecraft Center, July 15, 1969, pp. 51 & 74 (as part of the Data Card Kit, LM XFR)

CONDITION REPORT:

To๊ request a condition report for this lot, please email science@laitexier.com