Hasselblad’s moon camera goes under the hammer
The only Hasselblad camera to have made the trip back from the moon is expected to fetch more than €150,000 when it's auctioned next month
This Hasselblad 500 is the only camera to have made it back from the moon
Image courtesy of WestLicht
Used by astronaut Jim Irwin during the Apollo 15 mission in 1971, the Hasselblad 500, dubbed EL DATA CAMERA HEDC, will go under the hammer at the next WestLicht Camera Auction on 22 March.
The camera was one of 14 used on the moon during Apollo missions 11-17. However, it’s the only one to have made the trip back to Earth. The other 13 cameras were left on the moon, “as the astronauts only took the film magazines back home in order to take lunar rocks in the equivalent of the weight of the cameras”, explains the auction house in a prepared statement.
Jim Irwin took exactly 299 pictures with the Hasselblad during his three-day stay on the lunar surface, and 96 more on the way to the moon and back again. “This historical camera comes with an extensive documentation and photographs taken by Irwin, assembled by its former owner Alain Lazzarini, author of the book Hasselblad and the Moon,” adds WestLicht.
The camera is expected to fetch more than €150,000.
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