First Moonwalk Artifacts discovered by Neil Armstrong's Widow
What else can you expect from a traveler who has returned from a special walk, and that too on the moon? Every traveler always returns with mementos from their excursions and adventures. Perhaps this is what astronaut Neil Armstrong was thinking and the first man to step foot on the moon has left behind his personal artifacts related to that amazing journey. Armstrong's widow has found some items in a closet, and she has shared a picture of them with the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum curators, as CNN reports. Armstrong died in 2012 after a complicated heart surgery.
It was only recently that Carol Armstrong found a white cloth bag that was filled with small items that looked like from a spacecraft. Carol had already donated many of the Apollo 11 artifacts and had shared her husband's correspondence with Purdue University in Indiana.
CNET reports as to how the Apollo moon artifacts were lying forgotten in Neil Armstrong's closet. Carol has emailed the picture of the items that she found and, spread them out on her carpet. The Apollo 11 mission in 1969 put man on the moon for the first time. This was a giant leap for mankind and not just one small step for man. It would be an immense honor and challenge to learn the significance of the items found in the bag. The artifacts Carol made available to the museum weren't any actually flown artifacts. A team of experts from the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal (ALSJ) will help determine the significance of the artifacts.
Looking at the pictures of the assorted small items, a few were recognized to have certainly come from Neil Armstrong's Apollo 11 mission, like the National Air and Space Museum states. Q13fox reports that the momentary storage bag was entitled after James McDivitt, Apollo 9 Commander and called the "McDivitt purse." It was used by the astronauts for a temporary stowage of items. Earlier, Armstrong had been recorded as having said that this was just some bunch of trash that they had like to take back, and all those odds and ends.
