Neil Armstrong was the first man to set foot on the moon at 02:56:16 (UT) on July 21st, 1969, but he passed away 2012. His widow, Carol, notified the National Air and Space Museum when she found a white cloth bag that she believed contained mementos from Armstrong’s mission to the moon 40 years ago in his cupboard, and this treasure turned up a 16mm DAC camera, the one used by Armstrong to film his “one small step” and the planting of the US flag on the lunar surface.

“I received an email from Carol Armstrong that she had located, in one of Neil’s closets, a white cloth bag filled with assorted small items that looked like they may have come from a spacecraft,” said Allan Needell, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington. “Needless to say, for a curator of a collection of space artefacts, it is hard to imagine anything more exciting.”

There were 17 objects from the Apollo 11 mission inside the bag found within Armstrong’s cupboard, including the waist tether he used, and his utility lights, as well as an emergency wrench. And then, the 16mm Data Acquisition Camera (DAC) he used to film footage of his final descent to the lunar surface in 1969.

The camera did not contain any film, and the cartridges and its iconic footage were already submitted to the authorities at their arrival back to Earth. “The 16mm DAC, given the images that it captured, ranks as enormously important,” said Needell.

Neil Armstrong was supposed to have handed over the white cloth storage bag, called the “McDivitt purse” and its contents to commander of the Eagle lunar module for destruction, but it appeared he kept back the objects for sentimental reasons, which is very unusual of astronauts.

In fact he mentioned it to the command module pilot, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin as they headed back to Earth, saying “That (is) just a bunch of trash that we want to take back – LM (lunar module) parts, odds and ends.”

Source: Neil Armstrong