Remarkable flown double-sided “Drift Check & Landing Gear Deploy” page from the Apollo 11 Lunar Module Activation Checklist, 8 x 6, signed and flight-certified in black ink, “Flown to the Lunar Surface on Apollo XI, Eagle, July 20, 1969, Buzz Aldrin, LMP.” This page includes significant in-flight handwritten notations by Commander Neil Armstrong of the gimbal angles of the CM and LM and the precise time they were recorded. The pages are numbered at the top, “ACT-44” and “ACT-45.” In fine condition. Accompanied by a photo of Aldrin holding the offered checklist, printed transcripts of the mission’s drift check and deployment of the landing gear, and a detailed letter of provenance from Aldrin, who signs at the conclusion. The letter reads, in part: “Enclosed with this letter is a sheet numbered ACT-44 & ACT 45 from the Apollo 11 (LM) Lunar Module Systems Activation Checklist, Part No. SKB32100080-360. The checklist was flown to the moon aboard Apollo 11...Then the entire checklist, including this sheet, was carried to the surface of the moon in Lunar Module Eagle during the first lunar landing on July 20, 1969. This sheet has mission notes by Neil Armstrong, and provides critical steps Neil and I performed in Eagle just little more than three and a half hours prior to the first manned lunar landing.
Side ACT-44 indicates that at approximately (GET) Ground Elapsed Time of 98 hours and 50 minutes, I would activate the S-Band Antenna in the SLEW (Manual) position and capture the angles necessary to acquire the (MSFN) Manned Spaceflight Network. Once acquired, I put the S-Band Antenna into the Auto Tracking mode. I took the additional steps to activate Telemetry to Right/Hi and activate Voice to Voice...Once the S-Band was activated at GET 98:56, MSFN ran Program 27 to uplink our AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer) with REFSMMAT & State Vector data...
Side Act 45 next requires we perform a Drift Check of the lunar orbit trajectory via the AGC for course drift. Neil punched in the Verb 06/Noun 20 commands into the Display Keyboard (DSKY) of the AGC. This command provided us and transmitted Eagle's present ICDU — Inertial Coupling Data Unit or gimbal angles (roll, pitch & yaw) to MSFN. CMP Mike Collins radioed the Gimbal Angles of Columbia to be: 358.64; 020.73; and 359.54. CapCom Charlie Duke read back Mike Collin's angles as well as Eagle's transmitted angles of 303.74; 200.78, and 000.53. Neil recorded mission notes of Colombia and Eagle's gimbal angles on this page and marked the time of the report he transmitted to MSFN as 99:04:00 (GET).
The final act called for the deployment of the Landing Gear at 99:05, though Neil and I actually deployed the Landing Gear earlier at 98:14 GET while on the dark side of the moon. I called off the checklist for Neil to ensure that the circuit breaker for Landing Gear Flag was closed and Logic Power-A open, located on Panel 11 in Eagle. Then I called for Neil to turn to Panel 8 & engage the Master Arm explosive device and fire the Landing Gear deployment switch. This action fully deployed the landing gear necessary for Neil and I to make Mankind's very first landing on another celestial body — the moon.” A most important surface-flown piece from the legendary Apollo 11 mission, personally flight-certified by LMP Aldrin and containing incredibly rare working annotations by first moonwalker Neil Armstrong on the very day the Eagle’s crew began their historic descent and landing on the moon.
This item is Pre-Certified by STEVE ZARELLI
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