A Hasselblad 500 camera that reportedly flew aboard the Apollo 15 spacecraft lately sold at an auction for $910,000.
Terukazu Fujisawa, owner of the Yodobashi Camera retail chain in Japan, paid 660,000 Euros for the camera at WestLicht auction house in Austria, during their 25th camera auction. This camera, used by lunar module pilot Jim Irwin aboard Apollo 15, is said to be unique among private collectors as the only camera to ever come back from the Moon. The astronaut shot nearly 300 photographs with the camera during the mission.
"The top lot of the 25th WestLicht Camera Auction had a starting price of [$110,200] and proves the ongoing fascination with the moon landing," the auctioneers wrote in a press release announcing the sale.
Prior to the auction, sponsors estimated the camera would sell for between $200,000 and $270,000. A furious bidding war erupted over collectors eager to own the rare artifact from the 43-year-old space mission. The final bid was $760,000, plus auction fees.
Apollo 15 launched on 26 July 1971 and became the fourth successful lunar landing.
Every photograph we have from the Apollo missions in space came from one of the 14 cameras, attached to the command module or to spacesuits. Auction descriptions from WestLicht stated 13 of the cameras used during the program were abandoned on the surface of the Moon.
Kishore Sawh from SLRLounge claims that two other cameras also came back from the lunar surface.
"While I can't speak for the current placement of the cameras, it's known that Alan Shepard who famously hit a golf ball on the moon on Apollo 14 returned with his, as did Apollo 17′s Eugene Cernan, who was the last man to walk on the moon," Sawh wrote.
CollectSpace also questions whether the camera purchased by Terukazu was even on the surface of the Moon. According to their research, serial numbers show the same camera sold at an auction in New Hampshire in 2012. At that time, the device was listed as having been in lunar orbit, with no mention of landing on the Moon itself.
Edgar Mitchell, who traveled aboard the Apollo 14 mission to the Moon, returned to Earth with one of the cameras. He was given the Hasselblad as a memento of his trip. After announcing his intention to see the artifact in 2011, the space agency threatened a lawsuit.
The mystery of the Apollo 15 camera may never be solved. But even if this camera did not actually land on the Moon itself, Terukazu Fujisawa is likely the only person in the world who has any of the artifacts without traveling into space himself.
