Moon Landing Camera Up for Auction by NASA in Austria

A camera that was allegedly used by the eighth man who walked on the moon in 1971 is up for sale at an auction in Austria, according to the sales' organizers.

They've described the product as a 70mm Hasselblad Electric Data Camera (EDC) that was used on the moon in 1971 by the Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin. It will be auctioned in March by Austria's WestLicht Gallery.

"[The plate number] is 100-percent proof that this camera is the real thing and really was on the moon," said Peter Coeln, owner of the Westlicht Gallery, according to CollectSpace. "The number 38 appears on the camera's Reseau plate, a transparent piece of glass used to superimpose calibration crosshairs on the photographs taken with the camera. The "38" also appeared on each of the 299 photos captured by Irwin."

The gallery auction also claims that the Hasselblad EDC is the only lunar-surface-used camera that managed to return to earth, with a price that comes in around  $200,000 to $270,000. 

In order to save weight, the Apollo moonwalkers were instructed to leave certain things behind. However, on the second of the three moonwalks during the Apollo 15 mission, Irwin reported that the camera had been locked up. Yet it wasn't until the third moonwalk that it was rectified and brought back to earth for detailed inspection.

"I feel certain that this camera flew in the Apollo command service module during one or more lunar flights," said NASA's former aerial, instrumentation and motion picture photographer Dick Williamson in a letter included with the camera's 2012 auction, via the news organization. 

In May 2012, the same gallery also obtained the world record price for a camera when a 1923 Leica prototype came in at almost $3 million during auction. 

Wow is all we have to say. What do you think?