(FoxNews) – A bag of moon dust from NASA’s Apollo 11 mission – which a
woman bought for $995 in 2015 — sold for $1.8 million at a Sotheby’s auction
this week following an intense court battle.

The bag, filled with moon dust by astronaut Neil Armstrong during the first
manned mission to the moon in July 1969, had previously been misidentified
and mistakenly sold at an online government auction.

NASA’s attempt to retrieve the bag failed after a federal judge in December
ruled it legally belonged to a Chicago-area woman who bought it two years
ago.

The buyer in Tuesday’s auction declined to be identified. The pre-sale estimate
was $2 million to $4 million.

Pictured, astronaut Buzz Aldrin on the Moon in July of 1969.