Free Republic

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...

Joann Davis had a moon rock. Yes, it was real. A gift, she said, from Neil Armstrong to her late husband. She also had an ill son and the Lake Elsinore resident wanted to help with his medical care. So she contacted NASA about her intention to sell it. That led to a nightmare situation on May 19, 2011, when Davis stood in the parking lot of a Denny’s restaurant in pants soaked in urine, answering questions from a federal agent about a rice-sized piece of moon. “He kept saying, ‘You will be going to federal court, you will be...

Dina SpectorSeptember 25, 2015More than 453 people were crushed to death and another 610 injured in a stampede on Thursday during the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the Guardian reports, citing Saudi Arabian authorities. The stampede happened at a pilgrimage camp in Mina, located outside the holy city of Mecca. The incident happened on Street 204 — one of the two main roads that lead through the Mina camp to Jamarat — when two large groups of pilgrims arrived together, Reuters said. Jamarat is where pilgrims stone the devil by throwing pebbles at three large pillars. Thursday is Eid al-Adha, or...

An Apollo 17 moon rock missing for 30 years and believed to be worth up to $10 million has turned up in files belonging to Bill Clinton. The valuable rock was one of 50 presented to each state after the 1972 space mission. NASA has found that since the rocks have been distributed, a very low percentage - which are encased in acrylic and mounted on a plaque along with the intended recipient’s flag - can actually be located. The rock, believed to have a black market value of up to $10 million, had been missing since at least 1980...

A long-lost, highly valuable Moon rock brought back from the Apollo 17 mission has turned up in the files of Bill Clinton. The rock was one of 50 presented to each state, and was given to Arkansas while the ex-president was governor. The rock, worth millions of dollars, had been missing since at least 1980 until an archivist found it in old gubernatorial papers. Bobby Roberts, director of the Central Arkansas Library System, told Reuters the archivist opened a box previously archived as "Arkansas flag plaque." The rock and a state flag were originally affixed to the plaque, but the...

California woman trying to hawk moon rock for $1.7M to undercover NASA agent detained in stingBy Robert Jablon, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press 1 hour 3 minutes ago LOS ANGELES, Calif. - She promised the moon, for a sky-high price. He wasn't buying. A woman who tried to sell what she said was a rare piece of moon rock for $1.7 million was detained when her would-be buyer turned out to be an undercover NASA agent, officials said Friday. The grey rocks, which are considered national treasures and are illegal to sell, were given to each U.S. state...

New Jersey’s souvenir of Apollo 17 safely traveled 240,000 miles. After touchdown in Trenton, it went poof. That’s basically the story of the Garden State’s “Goodwill Moon Rock,” a prize divided among 50 states and about 130 countries to commemorate NASA’s last manned mission to the lunar surface. Nearly 38 years later, the stateside relics — those whose whereabouts are known — are treasured public property worth perhaps millions of dollars. New Hampshire’s rock is in the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center. Wisconsin displays its gift at the Deke Slayton Memorial Space and Bicycle Museum, alongside a bike that doubles as a...

AMSTERDAM (AP) -- It's not green cheese, but it might as well be. The Dutch national museum said Thursday that one of its prized possessions, a rock supposedly brought back from the moon by U.S. astronauts, is just a piece of petrified wood. Rijksmuseum spokeswoman Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the investigation that proved the piece was a fake, said the museum will keep it anyway as a curiosity. "It's a good story, with some questions that are still unanswered," she said. "We can laugh about it." The museum acquired the rock after the death of former Prime Minister Willem...

Na'eem Raza, a member of the Scottish Interfaith Council and founder of Scotland's Muslims Consultancy, gives his reaction to the terror attack at Glasgow Airport to the BBC Scotland news website. "Not again... not in Scotland... not in Glasgow... not the airport... please. Not Asians... Oh God, please, not Muslim. Oh God, please not Asians and Muslims from Glasgow... no! Mr Raza hoped the racism of past generations had gone for good Saturday afternoon was a period of reflection while all around me was in turmoil. I wasn't thinking of the ongoing events, rather the aftermath that might follow. I...

I'm new here and I thought I would intoduce myself. I had been lurking here for some time and I finally decided to join. I'm conservative but I'm against isolationism. I consider myself a Republican. I feel my party has been taken over by the Rockefeller Republicans. Look at the current possible GOP Presidential contenders. There is not one conservative in the group. I'm a fan of former President Ronald Reagan who managed to bring down the Soviet Union without firing a shot and Oliver North. Yeah, I know he's a very controversial man. I know both leftists and RINO's...

There is a song within the hearts of Americans,who care-"When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" and "My Country Tis of thee"..when will the soldiers come home?? Who is there that does not want the war to end ? And Will the deaths of one ,two or three hundred,ect. miltary make a difference in fighting off home ground on soil owned by those who are not afraid of death-or punishment-or killing off a million Americans. So we pray for all our troops that the war will end -that they may return HOME safe and their families,who agonize daily on news of...

Excerpt - "Houston, Tranquillity Base here. The Eagle has landed." The words of Neil Armstrong, Apollo 11 commander and the first human to set foot on the moon, told a tense and waiting Earth that humans had finally reached the lunar surface. It was July 20, 1969. With fuel running low and computers sounding alarms, Armstrong had taken manual control of the lunar module Eagle and piloted it past a boulder-strewn field to a safe landing. Now he and his crewmate Buzz Aldrin were sitting on the moon, with Mike Collins orbiting above in the command module. Armstrong's words from...

The last of four people convicted of stealing moon rocks out of a 600-pound safe inside a lab at Houston's Johnson Space Center received his sentence Wednesday, according to Local 6 News. Thad Roberts, 26, who pleaded guilty to stealing the space rocks, which have been valued at between $2.5 million and $7 million, will spend the next eight years and four months in prison. The sentence will be followed by three years on a supervised release program. In court, Roberts said he was ashamed and apologized to NASA for "abusing the trust he had with co-workers there." His attorney...