Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/04/17/this-nasa-joystick-used-during.html
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If it’s not wired into an Atari 2600 within a week they have to give it back.
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Buyer should sell castings of it so anybody can buy one and hook it up to their game console. Or, any other “in-home activities,” if you know what I mean.
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Painful?
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How does this sort of thing become available for sale? Isn’t everything from the Apollo program(me) government-funded government property? Why didn’t a public museum get it - for free?
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Your first thoughts and mine um… ended up in the same place.
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Great questions. The government does very, very often make gifts of spare flight hardware (some ending up as “gate guards”, small indoor display pieces, and contractors’ large outdoor displays; there’s an entire F-1 engine displayed by my first employer). The Apollo 12 Command Module is on display in the National Air and Space Museum. (The NASM website has a high-rez photo of the module interior; if you go there, note the joysticks.) Being that mission’s pilot, it’s entirely possible that Gordon (along with Conrad and Bean) simply asked for mission memorabilia; actual cabin items would have been prime for gifting, and so, gladly given. Gordon passed away a couple of years ago, which kind of synchs up with the recent auction. As to at least one of the module joysticks at the NASM? Simply replaced with a shiny “NIB” spare. 
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WANT!!
I could probably live inside it…
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Not necessarily a good idea. The pump/valve/ducting assemblies at the top formed the home of several birds nests. So unless one enjoys the chatter of many birdies during nesting season…
Then there were the insects. We watched the engine being crane-lifted then moved from its original location to our other campus site (where the F-1 is now) during our massive consolidation project years ago. The lift: Once the bell-shaped portion (nozzle) cleared the concrete pad it had been resting on for fifty or so years, you could see what must have been many hundreds of insects – large and small – boiling out of the nozzle and onto the pad. The sight made me shiver. It would have been different for me if they had been bees… and ‘interesting’ for others standing too close.
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Sure you weren’t seeing the Thrust Pixies?
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I’m not sure I follow … well, let’s fire up the old Simulator and see just what you mean by … by … oh, no … no no no, NO NO – that’s not happening in my house, thank you very much.
… But, ahh … leave the joystick, will you?
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