The estate of John Glenn is selling artifacts and belongings from the Ohio native’s long career as an astronaut and a senator. See photos of some of the items, ranging from high-end crystal to dress shoes and decks of cards.
WASHINGTON — The estate of John Glenn is selling artifacts and belongings from the Ohio native’s long career as an astronaut and a senator.
Items include mementos of Glenn’s career with NASA, the Senate and the Marine Corps. Decorative and household pieces are also available: Items range from jewelry to Tiffany crystal to mission clothing to a Mickey Mouse pin with Swarovski crystals. Stetson hats, meerschaum pipes and even dress shoes — only $10 — were on sale.
Just a few hours into the sale, more than 260 people had gotten numbers to get inside.
A baseball hat with the designation NX-01 on it went for $95. That’s a hefty price, but Don Eggert, of D.C., thought it was a bargain: It’s the registration of the first starship Enterprise, from the prequel series “Star Trek: Enterprise.”
“Here I can get something that I appreciate in science fiction,” Eggert said, “but it belonged to an astronaut who was amazing.”
Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth, in 1962. He served in the Senate from 1974 to 1999, and became the oldest person to fly in space in 1998, when he was 77. He died in 2016.
Rick Massimo came to WTOP, and to Washington, in 2013 after having lived in Providence, R.I., since he was a child. He's the author of "A Walking Tour of the Georgetown Set" and "I Got a Song: A History of the Newport Folk Festival."