Apollo 17 Scissors and Lanyard
One of my favorite “story” artifacts. This pair of scissors was removed from the Lunar Module and brought to the Moon’s surface during all three extravehicular activities (EVAs) as a contingency tool.
Each member of the Apollo 17 crew was issued a pair of scissors. However, Command Module Pilot Ron Evans temporarily “misplaced” his scissors during the trip from Earth. The scissors were needed for a variety of tasks, none more important than opening food bags (and the scissors were needed to cut the heavy-weight bags). So the Moonwalkers left one of the two pairs they had with Evans who flew solo up in the Command Module during the lunar landing.
The second pair of scissors was put into the ETB (equipment transfer bag) to go out onto the lunar surface. As the ETB was being lowered out of the Lunar Module, the scissors fell out of the bag and were almost completely buried in the Moon’s regolith dust!
Mission Control in Houston had to remind the Moonwalkers to bring the scissors back into the Lunar Module after each EVA or they might not be able to eat.
The transcript of the comments between Moonwalkers Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt indicated their concerns about finding the scissors:
•Schmitt: “You didn’t by any chance pick up those scissors, did you?”
•Cernan: “No, sir.”
•Schmitt: “They’re going to be hard to find….”
•Cernan: “Well, they were right down there (on the ground below the porch).”
•Schmitt: “Oh, boy. I can just still barely see the scissors.”
•Cernan: “We ought to get those, before we go hungry.”
The three-foot long lanyard, which is tied to the end of the scissors, is a separate NASA artifact with its own identification number indicated on the tag with a metal snap.
30×15″ in frame
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From “Mooncollector” Jim Ruddy lifetime collection, When Jim turned 82 and his health was failing, he wanted to bundle his collection of lunar surface artifacts together in a single sale to someone who would care for them, and so he contacted me. I agreed to procure the collection and spent some time with him discussing each artifact at his home in Palm Springs. He was meticulous and carefully framed each precious treasure. Soon after I added this to the FV space collection in 2015, he passed away.
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