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from the Louis-Vuitton,-Calvin-Klein,-NASA dept.
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials confirmed last week that they had mistakenly auctioned a bag used by astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong during the Apollo 11
The rare artifact, which was used to collect samples of moon rock during the first manned lunar mission back in 1969, was sold as a result of a clerical error, TechTimes reported.
In a government auction held last year, Nancy Carlson from Inverness, Illinois,USA, bought the white bag for just $995. NASA only realised its blunder when the woman sent the bag to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for authentication.
Upon multiple verifications, the space governing body decided to take possession of the artifact—for which Carlson has sued NASA, seeking the return of the bag.
The US government also acknowledged the mistake and described the bag as a "a rare artifact, if not a national treasure."
The bag in question was part of a collection of priceless items that was seized from the home of Max Ary, director of Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, the report said. He was later found guilty of stealing and selling off a number of the artefacts that were given on loan to the space centre.
http://technology.inquirer.net/51015/nasa-accidentally-sold-apollo-11-moon-landing-bag-in-an-auction
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 15 2016, @05:39PM
I'm still hoping the original moon-walk TV tapes can be found. The best guess is that somebody inadvertently reused them for other projects. The originals are so much better than the copies, which are movies of TV screens.
They should have had a dedicated "information archivist" on the project. In the rush to meet JFK's deadline, that kind of got ignored. Live and learn.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday August 15 2016, @06:49PM
It wasn't just because they were in a rush. Back in the 60s, stuff routinely got taped over. It also happened to some of the original Doctor Who tapes. [wikipedia.org]
They concluded that the data tapes – with the SSTV signal – were shipped from Australia to Goddard and then routinely erased and reused a few years later.[23] Australian backup tapes were also erased after Goddard received the reels,[11] following the procedures established by NASA.[24] The SSTV signal was recorded on telemetry data tapes mostly as a backup in case the real-time conversion and broadcast around the world failed. Since the real-time broadcast conversion worked, and was widely recorded on both videotape and film, the backup video was not deemed important at the time.[11] In the early 1980s, NASA was facing a severe data tape shortage for its Landsat program, and it was likely during this period that the tapes were erased and reused.[25]
Apollo 11 missing tapes [wikipedia.org]
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 16 2016, @01:49AM
They sold them to the "Forrest Gump" producers.