Posted on 09/30/2021 6:43:57 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A missing Moon rock originally gifted to the state of Louisiana by then-President Richard Nixon has been returned after a man in Florida found it sitting in an old box in his home. The man told CollectSPACE that he must have bought the rock, which vanished without a trace years ago, at some garage sale within the last 15 or so years — and that he never realized that he had bought such a priceless artifact.
The vast majority of the lunar samples brought back during the Apollo missions remain sealed away by NASA. However, most of the nearly 200 samples that Nixon gifted to the 50 US states, the country’s territories, and foreign governments have gone missing. A small percentage have been reported stolen, according to CollectSPACE. But the vast majority, like the Apollo 17 sample that the Florida man hand-delivered to the Louisiana State Museum, vanished without any clear explanation.
Louisiana State Museum interim director Steven Maklansky told CollectSPACE that the museum has no plans to launch an investigation into the rock’s bizarre journey from the state’s custody, to a garage sale, to a Florida man’s gun part storage, and back again, so we may never know how it got lost in the first place or who, presumably, had sticky fingers and decided to take it for themselves.
“As you can appreciate, I’m just happy that it is here now,”
(Excerpt) Read more at futurism.com ...
Because he thought it was the right thing to do. His rock, his choice.
This is what happens with most government property of any value - it gets ‘disappeared’ and ‘lost’. Or sold off to the ‘highest’ bidder.
Let’s hope the moon rocks that NASA retains have whatever they prescribe as the right proportion of colors, or some of the batch have to be tossed, so the collection doesn’t get assailed by main stream media for lack of diversity.
Some of the samples were legitimately misplaced, but the vast majority of “missing” samples were stolen, and there is a black market for them.
So the thieves are not MoonBats?
Did he also return the piece of the True Cross that he bought at that same garage sale?
I had to buy a new instrument, which had ivory in,ays, when I was traveling. Luckily I knew before hand or Customs would have seized a 150 year old instrument and burned it to protect the elephants,
No, they are thieves. People who take things that do not belong to them in any legitimate legal way.
(_*_)
I heard Neil Armstrong brought a piece of the Wright Brother’s Flyer with him on Apollo 11.
As a kid, I remember seeing an astronaut’s wife on TV being interviewed by a reporter.
The reporter mentioned how valuable a moon rock would be, and the astronaut’s wife said, “How much do you think they’d bring, on the open market?”
As a kid, I remember taking a field trip to the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, New York.
A moon rock from a recent space mission was on display. There was a pedestal, about four feet high, with a glass dome on the top.
Under the dome was an egg-shaped gray rock....a moon rock!
There was a security guard standing next to it. He was wearing a gray shirt, black slacks and a policeman’s cap.
I guess he wanted to make sure no one stole it. Gray haired guy....must have been a retired cop.
Hmm. At one of the sites we support, they were cleaning out a storage room of a retired college biology teacher and found a pair of human hands in formaldehyde. It was in a storage cabinet in the room that had not been checked in years. The container had no identifying information so turned over to the county health department.
It’s not having them that’s the problem; it’s other people finding out that’s the problem.
LOTS of people have things that are ONLY illegal to possess because of regulators, not because they did something horrible to gain possession.
No worries, tho; there’s an eternal flaming Hell, and all the souls will get properly situated in the end.
We are watching reruns of “Third Rock From the Sun”. Is it worth anything? /sarc
I hv never thought of the optional asterisk. Thanks!
;^)
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