It may not be compatible with your Wii U, Xbox One, or Playstation 4, but the joystic used to land Apollo 15 is now up for auction. To reiterate: you could potentially own a joystick used in outer space. Cool right?
This joystick is a party of an Aviation and Space auction hosted by Massachusetts based RR Auction in May. Bobby Livingston, VP at RR Auction, describes the the collection:
“While risking their lives during the most critical and historic phases of their mission, these are the items that the astronauts personally selected to retain as mementos from arguably the greatest technological and engineering achievement of the 20th Century.”
While I hope the joystick isn’t the technological achievement of the 20th century, it is certainly a neat bit of history.
Commander Dave Scott used the joystick (rotational hand controller) to manually guide the Lunar Module Falcon safely down, near the Hadley Rille landing site, on the Moon’s surface in 1971. It was also used by Commander Scott to pilot the ascent stage to rendezvous with Command Module for their trip home.
Almost 50 years later the joystick remains incredibly springy. The spring-loaded hand controller remains quite tight and returns to neutral. The communications trigger switch is also present, and a screw on the front of the housing retains one of its wax tamper seals.
As a reminder of the power of primitive technology (can you seriously believe we made it to the moon with that joystick?) the joystick deserves a prominent place in the home of whoever acquires it. With bidding expected to reach upwards of $300,000 it sadly won’t be coming home with me.
