Bidding Starts at $50K for Bible that Went to the Moon
- By C Barnett --
- 29 Jul 2018 --
Apollo 14 Mission Bible
Nate D. Sanders Auctions, an auction firm headquartered in Los Angeles, is presently accepting bids on a certain microform King James Bible[/tweetit] This photographically reduced Bible literally went out of the world– to the moon. The Apollo 14 flight, in 1971, took the tiny Holy Book up to the earth's sole satellite. A microscope is needed to read the Bible.
Bidding Starts at $50K for Bible that Went to the Moon[/tweetthis]
This space-traveled King James Bible was one of only 11 Bibles which left the Earth's gravitational pull in the hands of Edgar Mitchell, the landing module commander. Mitchell died in 2016. Incidentally, the year marked the 45th anniversary of the lunar landing. The Bible was stored in the personal items container during the space flight. A microform Bible was needed as a conventional Bible would be too heavy to be transported into space.
The auction firm has indicated that the threshold bid for this rare Bible is $50,000. Sam Heller, a spokesperson for Nate D. Sanders Auctions, said that a similar space faring Bible sold at $62,500 in 2017. This Bible went with the 1970 Apollo 13 mission which was aborted a few hours after take off. Mechanical malfunctions forced the astronauts to return to earth in hardship conditions. The spokesperson said that he would not venture a guess the final bid for the Bible which will go under the hammer. The seller is a collector who would like to preserve his anonymity.
The dimension of the to-be-auctioned Bible is a mere 1.625 inches. It was provided to the mission astronauts by Apollo Prayer League. The auction house, in its statement, said that the mission of the Apollo Prayer League was to pray not only for the astronauts blasting off into space but also for the numerous humanitarian causes done around the globe.
The Apollo Prayer League was begun by John Stout, an information scientist working in NASA. He was also an ordained pastor. Stout began the league post the horrific deaths of three astronauts in the 1967 Apollo 1 disaster. Roger Chaffee, Gus Grissom, and Edward White II died at launch. The pastor was close to White and frequently prayed together. Stout invented the microform version after he came to know that White wanted a Bible to carry it into space and on the moon. The earth's satellite had encountered religious paraphernalia the first time after Edwin Aldrin brought a miniature chalice and bread. He had a lunar Communion on July 20, 1969.
How much is the Bible worth to you?
Bidding on this particular bible starts at $50Khttps://t.co/26qXhn67k7— Carmen FowlerLaBerge (@carmenlaberge) July 25, 2018
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