Today’s model is a significant Swiss Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch fake watch.
The Soyuz TMA-11M undocked from the ISS on May 13, 2014, at 22:35:56 UTC. Inside, Mikhail Tyurin, Richard Mastracchio, and Koichi Wakata, representing ROSCOSMOS, NASA, and JAXA, respectively, were preparing for the last critical phase of Expedition 38/39. The mission had come to an end, and the three were preparing for a sporty re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere. When they landed somewhere near Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, they had each spent exactly 187d 21h 43m 52s in space, mostly on the International Space Station.
Over six months earlier, the mission started with a launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Onboard the spacecraft was an steel case Omega Speedmaster replica watch that had been given to Richard Mastracchio by ROSCOSMOS. The crew left the earth on a Russian-made Soyuz rocket en route to the ISS. In the wake of the Space Shuttle retirement in 2011, NASA had contracted space aboard the Russian space program’s Soyuz rockets to ferry American astronauts to and from the ISS.
And now, the black dial Omega Speedmaster replica watch Astronaut Richard Mastracchio carried with him on that launch will be leaving his orbit as it’s set to be auctioned at RR Auction’s upcoming Space & Aviation Auction, with bidding opening on October 8 and closing on October 15.
What’s interesting, however, is that the watch was reportedly, “provided by the Russian Space Agency to Astronaut Mastracchio prior to the Soyuz launch,” meaning the watch has both provenance connected to NASA, the agency Mastracchio comes from, and ROSCOSMOS, the Russian Space Agency. The fake Omega Speedmaster comes on an elastic EVA band that’s fitted on endlinks designed specifically for the band. The metal bracelet that’s affixed to the Speedmaster at the factory was removed and left on earth, and replaced with the elastic band. I took a look through NASA’s image archives to see if it was possible to spot the watch being worn by Mastracchio on any of the three spacewalks he performed during Expedition 38/39, but it is not visible. The watch was most likely flown with his personal effects, as Mastracchio is often seen wearing his super clone Omega X-33 aboard the ISS.
The first spacewalk Mastracchio took part in was performed with the objective of repairing the failed loop A pump module on the starboard 1 (S1) Truss of the ISS. It lasted 5 hours 28 minutes. Together, Mastracchio and fellow NASA astronaut Michael Hopkins removed the pump and disconnected four ammonia lines before heading back in. The second spacewalk saw the same team replace the failed pump with a new one and reconnect the ammonia lines. This EVA lasted 8 hours and 7 minutes. Hopkins was attached to the Space Station Remote Manipulator System, also known as Canadarm2, and replaced the pump. Shortly after the two astronauts reconnected the ammonia lines, ammonia was once again flowing through the new pump.
