NASA's world-famous space telescope up for sale

The Broad Band X-ray Telescope was acquired in 2003 by an art collector who recently decided to sell the space-traveled instrument to Craigslist. 

NASA's iconic Broad Band X-ray Telescope, which has been in private hands for many years, has been put up for sale for $10 million, or 3.2 billion forints, after NASA sold it at auction - reported a Futurism.

The space device was launched into space on 2 December 1990 with three other devices on board the Columbia space shuttle. Three of the instruments detected ultraviolet rays and one detected X-rays, and during their mission they made observations of about 130 individual astronomical targets. Three of the instruments were later exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum, and the fourth, BBXRT, was purchased by an enthusiastic collector from the NASA organised by the auction in 2003.

Owner John Urciolo has been storing the telescope in a shipping container for the past 18 years, and now he has decided to part with the unusual instrument, which weighs more than 800 kilograms. The precious relic was listed on Craigslist has been added, where it is described as being in excellent condition, with instalments allowed and the possibility of exchange not excluded.

However, the BBXRT is not the only NASA asset to be privately owned. A long-lost bag that Neil Armstrong used as a specimen collection during his Apollo 11 mission in 1969 sold for nearly $2 million at auction in 2017.