Some of the legendary items up for grabs included a spacesuit designed for Neil Armstrong, a Nasa patch coated with lunar dust and the Space Magna Carta - the first international peace accord written during the Apollo-Soyuz test project.

The auction at Christie's was named Space Exploration to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the moon landing.

The largest bid went for the Nasa arm patch, attracting well over $250,000. It was sold to an anonymous buyer.

On sale: Mission plans and operations manuals [photo: Christie's]

It was worn by astronaut James Irwin during the fourth moon landing.

Another draw was Neil Armstrong's A5L Apollo spacesuit, which was eventually sold for $160,000.

Other items up for bids included a pair of gloves from the Gemini project, which sold for $14,000 as well as rare flight and mission plans and operation manuals from the Apollo programme.

Space history

One of the many unique artefacts acknowledged Russia's contribution to space exploration - a rare document by "the father of astronautics", Konstantin Tsiolkovski.

A gold watch worn by astronaut Donald Slayton [Photo: Christie's]

"It goes back to the theory of space exploration," said Richard Austin, who organised the exhibit.

"This is a person who's coming up with the idea of space suits, space walks in 1911," he said.

A suit from an early Russian space programme was also on display.