Laptop used by Bill Clinton to send first US presidential e-mail is for sale

A 15-year-old laptop doesn't go for much on eBay - unless it's the one Bill Clinton used to send the first US presidential e-mail.

The still-functioning computer - with Clinton's cheerful exchange with space shuttle astronaut John Glenn in November 1998 on the hard drive - is the featured item in an online sale by RR Auction.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it goes for US$100,000 or more. Just the content of it is awesome," said Bobby Livingston, a spokesman for the auction house, based in the US state of Massachusetts, that specialises in rare and unusual collectibles.

Glenn, a US senator who in 1962 had been the first US astronaut to orbit earth, was on a nine-day mission aboard the space shuttle Discovery when he told Nasa he wanted to e-mail Clinton, who was in Arkansas visiting friends.

"This is certainly a first for me, writing to a president from space, and it may be a first for you in receiving an e-mail direct from an orbiting spacecraft," wrote Glenn, then 77.

Clinton was keen to receive the message, but when his staff couldn't readily find him a computer to do so, White House physician Robert Darling stepped forward with his trusty Toshiba and his personal AOL e-mail address.

"Hillary and I had a great time at the launch," wrote Clinton, referring to Discovery's lift-off from the Kennedy Space Centre a few days earlier, in his reply. "We are very proud of you and the entire crew, and a little jealous."