[Apollo 11]

Directly from the Personal Collection of Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin

FLOWN TO THE LUNAR SURFACE ON APOLLO 11. This checklist sheet details the procedures needed to test the Rendezvous Radar (RR) on board Lunar Module Eagle, ensuring Eagle could rejoin Command Module Columbia and return to Earth after the Lunar landing. From the collection of Buzz Aldrin, "Dr. Rendezvous," himself, whose Ph.D thesis at M.I.T. was on the Lunar Module rendezvous technique that was used for the Apollo Lunar landing missions.

Two copies of the Apollo 11 LM Systems Activation Checklist, the Launch Operations Checklist and the Entry Operations Checklist were were carried to the Moon in the Command Module Columbia, and then both copies were transferred from the Command Module into the Lunar Module Eagle and then carried down to the Lunar surface, were both Armstrong and Aldrin made notations on both copies. One of these two copies was supposed to have been jettisoned and left on the Lunar surface (and indeed the Apollo 11 Stowage List lists a quantity of 2 being loaded into the CSM for launch, a quantity of 2 being transferred to the LM from the CSM for the descent, and then a quantity of only one be transferred back into the CSM from the LM for the return ) but Aldrin decided to keep both copies. (The complete copy that was to be jettisoned was sold in these rooms in 2022, as lot 16 in the "Buzz Aldrin: American Icon" sale for $567,000)

BUZZ ALDRIN'S provenance letter reads, in full: 

"Enclosed with this letter is a sheet numbered ACT-56 and ACT-57 from the Apollo 11 LM Activation Checklist. The entire checklist was carried to the Moon on the flight of Apollo 11 during July 16 to 24, 1969. Then the checklist, including this sheet, was taken to the surface of the Moon in Lunar Module Eagle during the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969.

Sides ACT-56 and ACT-57 list instructions to self-test the Rendezvous Radar on board the Lunar Module Eagle before Eagle could begin procedures to undock from the Command Module Columbia and continue the journey to the lunar surface. It was important to ensure the RR was in working order, as it would be used to return to Columbia once Neil and I left the lunar surface. 

This LM Systems Activation Checklist sheet from Apollo 11 is from one of the few documents used both in lunar orbit and on the Sea of Tranquility. It is a rare example of an astronaut flight-certified object used on the first landing on the Moon."

REFERENCES:

NASA. Apollo 11 Stowage List. Mission AS 506 CM 107/LM-5. Houston, Texas: Manned Spacecraft Center, July 15, 1969, pp. 3, 51, 57, 74, and 83