Hardware items from the 1969 Apollo 11 mission that were supposed to be left behind on the Moon were discovered inside Neil Armstrong's closets, hidden for 45 years, authorities said.

The artifacts brought home by Neil Armstrong, the first man to set foot on the Moon, included a camera that recorded the first Moon landing, a waist tether that the astronaut used to support his feet and 15 other objects from the Apollo 11 mission.

Like Us on Facebook

All those items were supposed to be left behind on the Moon after Armstrong successfully sat his foot on it.

It was Allan Needell, the Apollo curator at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, who announced the discovery in a blog post.

"I received an email from Carol Armstrong that she had located in one of Neil's closets a white cloth bag filled with assorted small items that looked like they may have come from a spacecraft," Needell said.

Carol, Armstrong's widow, shared the information about the cloth bag found in the astronaut's closets in 2013. She even took pictures of the items and sent it to Needell.

The bag turned out to be a McDivitt Purse, a special container officially called a Temporary Stowage Bag stowed in the Lunar Module during launch.

A team of experts examined the items from Armstrong and confirmed with complete certainty that those were indeed from the Apollo 11.

One of the items is already on display at the National Air and Space Museum - a 16mm movie camera with its 10mm lens.

The camera was used to film the final phase of the descent to the lunar surface, the landing, and Armstrong's and Buzz Aldrin's activities on the lunar surface.

Needell said the items brought home by Armstrong were supposed to be left behind on the Moon but Armstrong informed mission control on their way home that they were bringing 10 pounds of miscellaneous equipment.

How the items went into Armstrong's closets instead of surrendering them to mission control was still unknown.

"As far as we know, Neil has never discussed the existence of these items and no one else has seen them in the 45 years since he returned from the Moon," Needell said.

Armstrong died in 2012 at the age of 82.

Tags Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 Artifacts