Buzz Aldrin’s flown 10.5 x 8 double-sided page from the final Apollo 11 Flight Plan carried into lunar orbit aboard the Command Module Columbia during the first lunar landing mission, signed and flight-certified in blue ballpoint, “Carried to the moon on Apollo XI, Buzz Aldrin,” with additional pencil notations made in the hand of CMP Michael Collins while in lunar orbit. The page’s front and back, numbered “3-97” and “3-98,” consist of a detailed two-hour timeline section that covers from hour 131 to the beginning of hour 133 of the mission.
Side 3-97 features steps required to secure Columbia prior to jettison of the LM Eagle’s Ascent Stage, with Collins adding left-handed check marks after each step was accomplished. Collins also adds the initial recording of “131:52” for the LM jettison time, strikes through the printed time, records the roll, pitch, and yaw attitude position in degrees for the jettison, “R 0, P 025, Y 0,” and then logs “done at 130:10,” the exact time of the Eagle’s jettison in ground elapsed time (GET) of hours and minutes. On side 3-98, the pace of events start to slow, with Collins recording a Mission Control request of a “Waste Dump to 10% —> 131:05,” which dumped waste water into space shortly before the crew ate and began preparations for the Trans-Earth Injection burn that would bring them back to Earth. In fine condition.
Accompanied by a signed certificate of authenticity from Buzz Aldrin, who writes that the page “is part of the entire document that was carried to the Moon in Command Module Columbia during the first lunar landing mission…The flight plan was probably the single most important document related to the success of our mission. It provided a time schedule of crew activities and spacecraft maneuvers to accomplish the first lunar landing. This page has been in my private collection since 1969."
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