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Lunar samples originally belonged to Nina Ivanovna Koroleva, widow of the former director of the Soviet Space Program
Three rock fragments taken from the moon by a Soviet space mission in 1970 were sold $ 855,000 at an auction in New York on Thursday.
The auction house Sotheby's stated that "moon rocks" are the only documented lunar material known and owned by individuals. They were offered for sale by an unidentified private American collector who bought them at auction in 1993 for $ 442,500.
Sotheby's stated that the buyer was Thursday another private American collector, but the name was not revealed.
Prior to sale, the size of the fragments, ranging from about 0.079 inches x 0.079 inches (2 x 2 mm) to 0.039 inches x 0.039 inches (1 x 1 mm), could be up to $ 1 million.
The lunar samples originally belonged to Nina Ivanovna Koroleva, widow of the former director of the Soviet space program Sergei Pavlovich Korolev. They were presented to her as a gift from the Soviet Union in recognition of her husband's contributions to the program, said Sotheby's.
The particles were recovered in September 1970 by the unmanned Luna-16, who drilled a hole in the auction house said in a statement.
Most of the other known samples taken from the Moon remain with the two entities that collected them: the United States during the Apollo Missions 11-17 and the Soviet Union through the unmanned missions Luna-16, Luna-20 and Luna 24.
Collectors pay huge sums for space exploration artifacts. Last year, Sotheby's sold a zipped bag with the inscription "Lunar Sample Return" covered with moon dust, which was used by Neil Armstrong for the first manned mission on the moon in 1969 , priced at $ 1.8 million.
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