Smithsonian unveils artifacts from Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 mission

When Neil Armstrong made his first step on the moon, he was supposed to leave some artifacts behind. Now, these same artifacts may be put on display soon.

ABC News reported that after her husband’s death in 2012, Carol Armstrong found a white bag in the famed astronaut’s closet and it turned out to contain mementos that came from the 1969 mission to the moon.

She got in touch with the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The curator of the Smithsonia’s Apollo collection, Allan Needell, said, “She called and said she found this white cloth bag in Neil’s closet. She said it looked like there were things from a spacecraft in there and would we be interested.”

Many of the items inside had things relating to Apollo, including a waist tether and utility lights that also included power cables. The bag is known as a McDivitt Purse and opens much like a clutch would.

Fox News reported another item found in the bag included a 16mm Data Acquisition Camera that captured the famous “one small step” that Armstrong took.

The Smithsonian is cataloguing the items and there are plans to put them up for public display.

Needell made a statement to ABC News saying, “These items were cataloged items and basically scheduled to be left in the lunar module. We have some evidence…these were just surplus items they were taking home.”

Since the priority of the mission was to make sure scientific samples made their way back to Earth, it was likely the items found in the bag were meant to be left behind. Needell also said it wasn’t “uncommon” for astronauts to hold onto personal moments.

You can read Needell’s blog post about the findings here.

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