A strip of fabric shorn from the American flag before it went to the moon with Apollo 11 astronauts pulled in a top bid of USD 60,000 at a Los Angeles auction yesterday, but didn't meet the auction house's minimum reserve price of USD 95,000 and was not sold.
For now it will stay in the possession of owner Tom Moser, the retired NASA engineer who rescued it from the trash in 1969.
"When you're dealing with a unique item there's no way to anticipate either value or interest, so it's really a blind item," said auctioneer Michael Orenstein. "I would say we established a market."
Orenstein had earlier expressed hope that the strip from what he called "the most-viewed flag in American history" along with a photo bearing Neil Armstrong's autograph would fetch USD 100,000 to USD 150,000.
Orenstein said sometimes there would be minimal interest in an item then, "I put it in the next sale and it goes wild. That's the nature of the auction business."
Other items at the space-themed auction met or surpassed expectations including a Collier trophy the so-called Oscar of aviation that was awarded to the crew of 1962's Mercury 7 mission and sold yesterday for USD 12,500.
Orenstein said the auction as a whole was a big success with a 95 per cent sell-through rate.
But the hopes were highest for the 18 cm strip of red and white fabric on consignment from Moser, the retired NASA engineer who was tasked with designing the moon-bound flag in the weeks before Apollo 11's 1969 launch.