NEW YORK, NY.- On April 21, Bonhams’ seventh annual Space History sale will be headlined by a large and fascinating collection of items belonging to Apollo 12 astronaut Alan Bean (b. 1932), the fourth man to walk on the Moon.

Captain Bean served alongside Commander Pete Conrad as the lunar module pilot for the Apollo 12 mission, the second mission to put a man on the moon, and the sale features an exciting array of items that accompanied Bean and Conrad on this historic mission. Some of the items even made it to the surface of the moon, such as the strap from Bean’s portable life support system. The waist strap, which is soiled with lunar dust, was used on a 7-hour and 45-minute exploration of the Moon’s Ocean of Storms on the Apollo 12 mission, and is estimated at $60,000 - 90,000.

Alan Bean made a special request to be able to eat his favorite meal while in space. One of the items to be offered is an uneaten meal that accompanied the mission and which Bean kept as a souvenir. Bean had the meal – pouches containing dehydrated peaches, grapefruit mix, and spaghetti – framed together with two stainless steel spoons that also made the journey. The pre-sale estimate for the set is $50,000 - 80,000. Meal packs like these required the astronaut to inject water into the food bag using a water gun, then knead it for about three minutes to work the moisture into the food. The package would then be cut open with scissors and consumed. A hand-written provenance letter by Bean says, “I wanted to be the first human to eat spaghetti on the moon as it was, and is my favorite food so I asked our food team to pack two first meals on the Moon for me. I ate one after Pete and I landed, and returned this same one back to Earth."

Being offered alongside Bean’s favorite meal is the water dispenser he used to re-hydrate his food. The original water dispenser from Apollo 12 lunar module, kept in Bean’s personal collection since the Apollo 12 mission, was also used for drinking water and could be used to spray down fires; in an emergency, the pressure valve could be turned to convert the water gun into a fire extinguisher. It carries a pre-sale estimate of $60,000 - 90,000.

This year’s Space History Sale is set to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the first American Spacewalk, accomplished on the Gemini 4 mission by astronauts James McDivitt and Ed White. Bonhams will be offering the very rare and important 13-page checklist from this epic. The checklist is expected to fetch between $80,000 and 120,000 and details procedures from launch through entry prep, including the first American spacewalk performed by Edward H. White. The four-day mission was not without its critical setbacks, many of which are evidenced by the in-flight notes written into this checklist, as well as the bloodstains found on page 6.

Cassandra Hatton, Director of History of Science & Technology at Bonhams, says, “We are thrilled to be holding our seventh annual Space History Sale, this year to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the historic first American spacewalk. We are very proud to have been chosen to offer items from Captain Alan Bean’s personal collection, and it is an honor to be able to handle such exciting and important items such as these.”

The auction will begin at 10am.