Neil Armstrong in one of the 2,400 NASA photos auctioned at Christie’s

Space enthusiasts can get their hands on the only photograph of Neil Armstrong’s famous footsteps on the moon and a self-portrait of Buzz Aldrin, the first selfie in the cosmos.

The rare photos are part of a collection of 2,400 vintage photos called Voyage To Another World which is on sale at an online auction hosted by Christie’s until November 19, 2020.

Made up of 700 lots, the original images show the “ artistic heritage of the golden age of space exploration when NASA and its astronaut-photographers captured the first forays into space and onto the surface of another world, ” he said. said the auction house in a press release shared last week.

Described as the “most comprehensive private collection of NASA photographs ever presented” at auction, the images cover several monumental moments in the space program, from spaceflight programs such as Mercury and Gemini to the historic Apollo voyage.

While iconic images are included among the photographs, several photos in the lots were not released by NASA at the time of the missions.

Photo in the set price range, with the rare image of Armstrong taken by Aldrin during Apollo 1 which is expected to sell spruce between £ 30,000 and £ 50,000 ($ 39,000 to $ 66,000).

Aldrin’s pioneering selfie is expected to sell for between £ 6,000 and £ 8,000 ($ 8,000 to $ 10,600), according to the auction house.

Other high-priced selections from the auction include a panoramic view of Harrison Schmitt and the Lunar Rover at Shorty Crater, the first photograph of ‘Earthrise’ and the ‘Blue Marble’ – the first human photo of the entire Earth, taken by Harrison Schmitt .

The press release states that photography at the time was still analog, “requiring light-sensitive chemicals, film and photographic papers.”

The astronauts were taught how to best capture images from NASA, Hasselblad, Kodak, specialist Zeiss, and photographers from Life and National Georgraphic.

“Through their cameras, astronauts transformed into artists were able to convey to humanity the beauty and depth of their experience in space, forever changing the way we see ourselves and our place in the universe,” the press release continues.

While some of the photos would become defining moments in pop culture, for several decades the general public was unaware of the abundance of photos taken by astronauts.

The photos were only available for accredited research in the archives of the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas.

The entire collection was rebuilt by Victor Martin-Malburet over the course of 15 years, the statement said.

Included in the collection are transcripts of NASA missions that help retrace the “first voyage of humanity to another world” step by step.

“Astronauts are often portrayed as great scientists and heroes, but they are rarely hailed as some of the most significant photographers of all time,” Martin-Malburet said in the statement. “The early pioneers of Mercury and Gemini were given as a canvas space and the Earth; Apollo astronauts an alien world.

“From the subtle protections of their space capsules and EMUs (Extravehicular Mobility Units), they skillfully and boldly captured photographs that immediately embraced the iconography of the sublime, inspiring awe and wonder.”

During the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing in 2019, the collection has been exhibited around the world in museums including the Grand Palais in Paris, the Kunsthaus in Zurich, the Museum Der Moderne in Salzburg, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen and the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Oslo.