Flown X-33 Auction Results

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I was curious about this one, how can you tell if it was flown or not?

You know what, after reading the auction again, it seems fairly obvious that it wasn't flown, so my mistake. Pretty good price, regardless.

Tom
 
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I don’t know if it was flown or not. It does not appear to have been worn, based on its condition
 
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Such flown items often come with good photos of the item floating aboard the ISS... or in the Soyuz capsule
Most hardware (e.g. spacesuit parts) has reference numbers and in today's highres photography, these can be easily seen...
For a space-flown wrist watch, it should come with a COA of the astronaut.cosmonaut who owned it !
 
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So these were issues to NASA and used by someone, but likely not flown then?
 
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Might have been used in training, but any spacefarer selling his or hers space-flown item will have good documentation.
The space-flown wristwatches I have seen in private collections all had detailed mission information of the astronaut/cosmonaut together with HighRes photos of the item in use aboard the Space Shuttle, ISS or Soyuz. Most photos clearly showing the item floating in space. Moreover all these came with a signed COA of the astronaut/cosmonaut !
 
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So these were issues to NASA and used by someone, but likely not flown then?

NASA buys Speedmasters and they are loaned to astronauts. From the description, this X-33 was new and still in factory packaging.

Tom
 
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Yes, agreed this one looked new. others they have auctioned have had a good amount of wear on them. So possibly they were loaned by astronauts but not worn on missions.
 
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I know the mechanical Speedmaster well. It is new unused and never issued to an astronaut for flight or training. It was purchased new from a previous GSA auction and retained by the owner until its sale in the RR auction.