Lots in Space

By Val Castronovo, Matthew Cooper, Autumn De Leon, Daniel S. Levy, Lina Lofaro, Chris Taylor and David E. Thigpen

Last week the families of 10 former astronauts held the first-ever auction of U.S. space memorabilia at Christie's in New York City. The final bids for used Apollo and Gemini space junk were wildly extravagant but still pale next to the budget of the space program today. Perhaps NASA should have done some bargain hunting.

ITEM: A Neil Armstrong spacesuit (1) ESTIMATE: $60,000 to $80,000 WENT FOR: $110,185 COMPARE WITH: Spacesuit for astronaut today @ $10 million (2)

ITEM: Gemini spacesuit gloves (3) ESTIMATE: $5,000 to $7,000 WENT FOR: $18,400 COMPARE WITH: Shuttle astronaut gloves @ $45,000

ITEM: Deke Slayton's Omega Speedmaster wristwatch (4) ESTIMATE: $8,000 to $12,000 WENT FOR: $28,750 COMPARE WITH: NASA's Kodak-made 460 camera @ $30,000

ITEM: Apollo 13 stowage locker (5) ESTIMATE: $20,000 to $30,000 WENT FOR: $40,250 COMPARE WITH: Shuttle foot restraints @ $80,000

ITEM: Apollo command-module water container (6) ESTIMATE: $400 to $600 WENT FOR: $748 COMPARE WITH: Space-shuttle toilet @ $4 million