Spocko sez, “After Neil Armstrong’s death his widow, Carol, discovered a white, cloth bag in a closet, containing flight and space related artifacts.”
The curator of the Apollo collection at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum determined the items were lunar surface equipment carried in Apollo 11’s Lunar Module Eagle.
Of special note is the 16mm movie camera with its 10mm lens. The camera was mounted behind the right forward window of the lunar module and was used to film the final phase of the descent to the lunar surface, the landing, as well as Neil Armstrong’s and Buzz Aldrin’s activities on the lunar surface including taking the first samples of lunar soil and planting the US flag.
The items are now at the National Air and Space Museum for preservation, research and eventual public display. They are classified as a loan from the Neil Armstrong family because of a law passed in 2012 that grants certain U.S. astronauts “full ownership rights” to their space artifacts.
The law states that America’s early space pioneers and moon voyagers are the legal owners of the equipment and spacecraft parts they saved as souvenirs from their missions.
Lunar Surface Flown Apollo 11 Artifacts
(Thanks, Spocko!)