A flashlight sold for $106,250 on Friday. However, it wasn’t just any flashlight. It was one of the most important flashlights in American history.
When an oxygen tank in the service module exploded two days into its mission, the Apollo 13 crew had to move into the lunar module — cramped with no heat or artificial light.
During the perilous trip back to earth, having had to abort the third moon landing, and with a lack of power, astronaut Fred Haise used his brass flashlight to see.
Until last month, Haise, now 91, had the flashlight in his possession, mounted to a wood plaque that read, “Lit my way home.”
Haise provided a testimonial to auction house Heritage, which sold the item.
“A flashlight was one of those items that I used for most of four days to provide lighting,” Haise wrote. "With the extreme power down, there was no spacecraft lighting available.”
The previous record for an Apollo 13 space-flown item was a Robbins medal ($87,500, Heritage, 2018) from the collection of astronaut Jack Swigert, most famous for his line, “Houston, we’ve got a problem.”
Haise and Swigert joined Jim Lovell on the mission and safely returned to earth. In 1994, Lovell published his book, “The Lost Moon.” A year later, the book was adapted into the movie “Apollo 13,” directed by Ron Howard and starring Tom Hanks as Lovell.
The movie was the second highest grossing of the year doing $232 million at the box office worldwide, narrowly finishing behind "Toy Story."
Darren Rovell is the founder of cllct.com and one of the country's leading reporters on the collectibles market. He previously worked for ESPN, CNBC and The Action Network.