Thrift Shoppers Find Rare NASA Flightsuits
We've all found treasures at a yard sale, flea market, or thrift store. Usually, it's a sentimental value or a just the right thing at the right time kind of situation that makes your new find a treasure. Rarely, you will find a lost artifact with real monetary value that you purchase for a pittance. Central Florida college students Talia Rappa and Skyer Ashworth recently experienced the latter situation when they stopped into their local thrift store looking for some cheap threads.
According to Clickorlando.com, the pair stumbled upon five blue NASA flight suits, along with a white “control suit,” while searching through the piles and bins of used clothes. They paid around 20 cents for each of them, but experts say they could be worth around $5,000 each!
The suits belonged to George “Pinky” Nelson, PhD, Robert A. Parker, PhD, and Charles D. Walker, a payload specialist with the STS-9 crew of the Space Shuttle Colombia, and were in use sometime between 1983 and 1985.
The aerospace and astrophysics students plan to sell the suits at an American Space Museum auction November 4th. They will then donate some of the proceeds to the museum, and the rest will go to tuition.