A rare copy of a Jules Verne science-fiction novel, which imagined man landing on the moon more than 100 years before Neil Armstrong set foot its surface, has been sold for £1,600.

De La Terre a la Lune (From Earth to the Moon) was written in 1865 and tells the story of an attempt to fire man to the moon using an enormous gun.

In the book, part of Verne’s Voyages Extraordinaires (Extraordinary Journeys) series, three men are blasted into space from a launch site in Florida.

On their return from the mission they land back in the Pacific Ocean where they are rescued by the US Navy.

In recognition of the similarities between the story and the actual events of 1969, when Neil Armstrong became the first man on the moon, the book was signed by a host of NASA experts.

Among the 25 signatures is that of German engineer Wernher von Braun, the man behind the Saturn V rocket which launched Apollo XI into space.

The book was snapped up by a private European collector for £1,600 at the Bloomsbury sale.

It was sold with a NASA-issued copy of Bill Anders’ famous photograph of Earth taken while orbiting the moon on Apollo VIII in 1968.

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