Amazing and incredibly rare backpack strap from Charles “Pete” Conrad’s PLSS (Personal Life Support System), used on the lunar surface during both of his moonwalks during the Apollo 12 mission.
A 2″ x 1″ label is sewn to the end with “C. C.—R,” (Charles Conrad—Right) printed in the center. Front of the strap is signed in black felt tip, “Backpack strap, worn on the lunar surface by me; Nov. 19-20, 1969. Charles Conrad, Cdr. Apollo XII.”
The letter from Conrad, which reads, in part: “I certify that the accompanying Backpack strap…bearing the stenciled letters C. C.—R…was worn during both my moonwalks on the Ocean of Storms…These straps were individually fitted to each astronaut, and designed for one-time use only due to their customization, for later discard with our backpacks on the Moon. We were allowed to keep, and return, a few personal mementos from the Moon as keepsakes, and I included these disposable straps among mine. After this strap’s release from quarantine, and return to me by NASA, it remained a treasured part of my personal space collection until 1992…Today, it remains among the largest, and finest, fully-documented tools in private hands ever used by Man on the surface of another world!”
Strap measures 29″ in overall length, with a long adjustable strap and metal clip to lower end, numbered B543 V723617-20, with a Beta cloth covered hook and ring assembly at the top. Cloth section also has a sewn on loop and sub-strap to lower portion of cloth, as well as a snap-on cover protecting the lower assembly.
near the south rim of Surveyor Crater.
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