Photo: RR Auction
We’re all used to hearing about people paying real fortunes to get their hands on rare or otherwise special cars. The ones who regularly do this are called collectors, and they are a breed, of course, not limited to the world of automobiles.
The world of space objects collectors is perhaps just as lucrative as the auto one. Sure, one might argue that the amounts of cash that fly around in this industry cannot even begin to compare with what’s going on in the car collectors’ world, but at some level, one could argue quite to opposite.
Take the object we have here. It’s a space suit glove dating back to the days of Project Mercury, America’s first human spaceflight program. This particular one, a left-hand glove, was not flown to space, but designed as testing and training piece of hardware for Mercury-Redstone 3 pilot Alan Shepard, who, in 1961, became to first American to fly to space and the second human in history to do it.
The glove is made from aluminized nylon and has white leather for the palm and thumb. There’s an aluminum wrist cuff wearing an inscription that names the type of object, its maker (B.F. Goodrich), and its intended recipient, NASA. On the felt tip inside the wrist, the word Shepard is inscribed.
The glove is now listed for sale on a specialized website called RR Auction, and caused quite a stir among space objects collectors. At the time of writing, after 20 bids, the highest someone is willing to offer is $18,626, and the sale is expected to conclude on April 21, so there’s still some time left for that amount to grow.
To get a sense of what almost $19,000 means, keep in mind that’s about as much as Kia is asking for the Rio, or Nissan for the Kicks.
Take the object we have here. It’s a space suit glove dating back to the days of Project Mercury, America’s first human spaceflight program. This particular one, a left-hand glove, was not flown to space, but designed as testing and training piece of hardware for Mercury-Redstone 3 pilot Alan Shepard, who, in 1961, became to first American to fly to space and the second human in history to do it.
The glove is made from aluminized nylon and has white leather for the palm and thumb. There’s an aluminum wrist cuff wearing an inscription that names the type of object, its maker (B.F. Goodrich), and its intended recipient, NASA. On the felt tip inside the wrist, the word Shepard is inscribed.
The glove is now listed for sale on a specialized website called RR Auction, and caused quite a stir among space objects collectors. At the time of writing, after 20 bids, the highest someone is willing to offer is $18,626, and the sale is expected to conclude on April 21, so there’s still some time left for that amount to grow.
To get a sense of what almost $19,000 means, keep in mind that’s about as much as Kia is asking for the Rio, or Nissan for the Kicks.
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