Neil Armstrong donates personal items to Cosmosphere museum

HUTCHINSON, Kan. – The family of astronaut Neil Armstrong, the first man to step on the moon, has donated two items that were aboard the Apollo 11 mission in 1969 to the Cosmosphere space museum in Hutchinson.

Armstrong’s two sons donated a 4-by-6-inch U.S. flag and a small piece of fabric from the wing of the Wright Flyer, the first flying machine built by the Wright brothers, the museum announced Wednesday. The piece of fabric was in the lunar module when it touched down on the moon, the museum said.

Neil Armstrong died in 2012.

“When I visited the Cosmosphere in 2019, it was clearly a world-class space museum, but I didn’t see anything from Apollo 11 (mission) on exhibit, and it seemed obvious to me that they should have something from the flight,” Rick Armstrong said in a news release. “We hope these items will complement the inspirational exhibits that are already in place.”

The new donations will be put on display later this year.