Neil Armstrong's keepsakes on auction to mark 50th anniversary of Apollo 11

The items to be auctioned include flags, medallions, stamped envelopes and other memorabilia that made the trip to the moon and back

In the summer of 1969, Rick Armstrong was 12 and whacking the baseball in the Houston-area Little League.

He was selected to play in the all-star game — but he had to skip it, because he was at Cape Canaveral in Florida to watch his father, Neil A. Armstrong, blast off to the moon.

“I wasn’t happy about that,” said Rick, now 61.

As the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 approaches, Rick and his brother Mark, 55, are auctioning about 3,000 belongings of their father, who died in 2012. In the process, they are revisiting their childhoods and the enduring legacy of their