On Thursday, May 29, items belonging to Apollo 13 astronaut Jack Swigert that went into space with him will be auctioned off at a Los Angeles auction house, including a mechanical pencil and an Oral-B toothbrush.
According to the Denver Post, Swigert’s family is putting 91 of the late astronaut’s belongings up for auction. Each item will come with a letter of authenticity from Swigert’s sister.
The rarest item going up for auction will be the Robbins medal from Swigert’s Apollo 17 mission, for which bidding will start at $45,000.
One of the more unusual items hitting the auction block is the NASA Oral B-40 clear toothbrush that Swigert, who died in 1982 shortly after being elected to represent Colorado’s 6th district in the House of Representatives, used during the 1970 Apollo 13 mission.
Bidding for the toothbrush will begin at $4,000, the Denver Post reported. While this toothbrush is much more expensive than the average toothbrush, it represents merely a fraction of the $775 million that Americans spend on toothbrushes each year.
Swigert was one of the last American astronauts to fly to the moon, according to rawstory.com. For the Apollo 13 mission, he stepped in at the last minute to replace a colleague exposed to measles.
The voyage was intended to be the seventh manned journey to land on the moon’s surface, but was aborted after one of the spaceship’s oxygen tanks exploded 55 hours after takeoff.
Proceeds from the auction will go to Swigert’s estate, according to rawstory.com.