Man's lifelong space collection to go on sale

Phil Parker (l), pictured with Nasa manager Ray E Smythe, gathered items from the golden years of space exploration, auctioneers said

A man's lifetime collection of space memorabilia is to be sold at auction.

Phil Parker, from Newcastle-under-Lyme, has amassed dozens of items including space-flown components, meteorite fragments, 5,000 slides of space scenes and a Cape Canaveral headset.

The 77-year-old retired computer engineer said he had been fascinated by the cosmos for his entire life.

“You look up at the stars and wonder what’s out there,” he said.

“I still do. The fact that we’ve been able to go out there through engineering has kept me fascinated throughout all these years.”

His collection, which is expected to sell for thousands of pounds, will be sold by Richard Winterton Auctioneers on 19 August at Lichfield Auction Centre.

Mr Parker's collection covers the golden years of space exploration as he was able to attend press conferences and meet engineers and astronauts in his role as a writer for British Interplanetary Society's (BIS) magazine Spaceflight in the 60s.

“I was then lucky enough to be chosen to cover the early Apollo missions for the BIS,” he said.

“I had to get proper press clearance from NASA and the US Air Force to cover the Apollo 11 Moon landing in 1969."

He travelled to the US two months later to witness the launch of Apollo 12 and has attended the launch of Skylab, the US’ first space station in 1973, visited Mission Control in Houston and the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville.

The collection will be sold on 19 August

Mr Parker also visited schools and community group during the 60s, 70s and 80s to talk about his experiences and organised exhibitions featuring some of his archive.

Other items in the auction include spaceflight hardware from rockets and space shuttles such as an Apollo module power supply and parts from Saturn V, Mercury-Redstone, Spacelab and Gemini.

Other highlights include cosmonaut Alex Volkov’s signed MiG helmet and flight suit, signed posters, NASA press packs for numerous Apollo missions, official NASA photos from Apollo 9 and original systems training and operating manuals.

David Fergus, valuer for Richard Winterton Auctioneers, said: “This sale is a fantastic opportunity to get a glimpse into one man’s life in the British Interplanetary Society and his dedication to the pursuit of space exploration.

“Many of these items have never appeared at auction anywhere so putting an estimate on is difficult but we expect the collection to realise several thousand pounds.”