posted 08-05-2016 03:37 PM               

On Wednesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office asked a federal judge to set aside the final forfeiture order and rescind the bag's sale, saying that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration was not properly notified of its forfeiture because the bag was misidentified.

The bag was sold at a government auction on Feb. 15, 2015 for $995 to Nancy Carlson in Inverness, Illinois. NASA learned the Apollo 11 bag had been sold without notice or permission when Carlson sent it to NASA at the Johnson Space Center in Houston for authentication. Carlson separately sued NASA in June in a federal court in Illinois, seeking the return of the bag...

Apparently, two lunar bags were confused as one and the same after inventory identification numbers of them were combined on spreadsheets, the government said.

posted 08-06-2016 12:50 AM               

Apollo 11 lunar sample bag lands at center of lawsuits

A small white bag that was once used by Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong to hold the first-ever lunar samples to be collected from the surface of the moon is now at the center of not one, but two lawsuits over who owns it today.

The zippered cloth pouch, which was labeled in bold black letters "Lunar Sample Return," was used on July 20, 1969 as the "outer decontamination bag" to hold the moon rocks for their trip back to Earth with Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins.

Under normal circumstances, one might expect that a bag of such extraordinary significance would be on display in a museum today. Instead, it is evidence in separate lawsuits filed by an Illinois woman who bought the historic bag at a government auction and by the United States Attorney for the District of Kansas, who is seeking to return the artifact to NASA.

"The lunar [sample return] bag... is a rare artifact, if not a national treasure," Thomas Beall, Acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Kansas, and Annette Gurney, Assistant U.S. Attorney, wrote in a court filing.

posted 08-06-2016 07:17 AM               

1. US Government sent this to auction? Didn't have NASA's permission? I thought that worked the other way around. NASA's the committee formed by the US government.

2. The bag a National Treasure? I believe what was in the bag was the treasure. Believe you and I, if it was a national treasure it would have already been in a museum, not a dark room somewhere not even cataloged correctly. The use of the words National Treasure by the attorney is a ploy for public sentiment and a hope for media manipulation of the case.

posted 08-06-2016 07:47 AM               

NASA wasn't notified of the lunar bag's forfeiture, the government states, because of an inventory error. When reported in 2005, the list of the more than 400 artifacts missing from the Cosmosphere included only one entry for a lunar sample bag:

Flown Apollo 17 Decon Lunar Sample Bag, part no. V36-601506, serial number 06362AAJ8451.

A recent review of the documents, gathered more than ten years ago as part of the underlying criminal investigation, indicates the Cosmosphere inventory identification numbers for these two bags were eventually combined together on the spreadsheets, with the [Apollo 11] bag identified as KCSC 2249 not referenced, while the [Apollo 17] bag identified as KCSC 2268 appeared twice. As a result, no one connected with the case realized that KCSC 2249 was commingled with the substitute assets...

It is difficult, so many years after the actual events, to point to a definite place in time when the confusion and misidentification between the two bags first occurred, but it appears that it was early on. In documents recovered from the defendant's home during the search warrant, the defendant wrongly identified the bag purchased for $21,000 as KCSC 2268. Thus, the parties on both sides of this case operated under the same misidentification and confusion regarding the lunar bags.

The government's position is that if the initial confusion did not occur, NASA would have been made aware of the plans to forfeit the bag and would have objected.

The question then may be to the court: Does the legal requirement to notify any potential claimants of a pending forfeiture, and the failure to do so in this case, outweigh the protections afforded the buyer?

quote:

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Originally posted by moonnut:
...if it was a national treasure it would have already been in a museum, not a dark room somewhere not even cataloged correctly.

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posted 08-06-2016 09:05 AM               

The lunar bag recovered from the defendant's garage is marked by parts number V36-788034 and serial number 06362AAJ1885, which are stamped on a seam inside the bag.

posted 08-06-2016 11:32 AM               

Flown flags from missions, flown cue cards, lunar surface used checklists, flown spacecraft parts, flown kapton foil and items exposed to lunar environment are publicly traded every day. Ownership of those items is not relinquished by NASA. So I can understand why the US Marshals may not have informed NASA. After all it wasn't on the report of stolen items.

posted 08-06-2016 12:17 PM               

NASM has both SRC Decontamination Bags (although until now they were assigned a single catalog number, which I will correct).

There was a separate "SOFT" container for the Contingency sample on the LM stowed in the LHSSC (Left Hand Side Stowage Compartment). Once back in the LM the rock boxes and the contingency sample in the SOFT container were stowed and then transferred to the CM after rendezvous.

We know where each item was stowed on the CM and that the corresponding Decontamination Bag was stowed in the same container. Its not exactly clear (to me) exactly when the rock boxes and the contingency sample were placed in their respective Decontamination Bags, although there are specific instructions in the post flight ASHUR document regarding the handling of the samples once they were in the Decontamination Bags. This may have been before the samples were placed in lockers B5, B6 and A5, or later on the USS Hornet. Anyone know?

In any case, unlike the SRCs and both of their Decontamination Bags (which are safe in the National Collection), there are no records of the contingency sample, the SOFT container or the Contingency Sample Decontamination Bag finding their way to the Smithsonian.

posted 08-06-2016 05:08 PM               

Decontamination Bags

When returning items and equipment from the moon, precautions are taken to minimize lunar contamination to the CM and earth. The items are vacuumed, placed in decontamination bags (containers) aboard the LM, and the outer surface of the bags vacuumed. The items with decontamination bags are then transferred. The items requiring decontamination bags are the two lunar sample return containers (LSRC), the contingency lunar sample return container (CLSRC), 70 mm magazine container, and the lunar close-up camera cassette. The PGA bag will be used for the CDR and LMP space suit return container as it can be readily attached and detached from the CM aft bulkhead.

The decontamination bags are Beta cloth with zipper closures and fit snuggly over the item and its container. The decontamination bags are stowed in a CM aft bulkhead locker and transferred into the LM after lunar rendezvous.

posted 08-06-2016 10:37 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by space1:
I don't know whether this would be done inside the LM, in the docking tunnel, or just inside the CM.

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Inside the LM, according to the flight plan.

The "SOFT" container sounds like Item G4016 in the LM Launch Stowage List.

posted 08-13-2016 08:45 PM            

However, the contingency sample was not in those boxes. From the Apollo 11 ASHUR (Apollo Spacecraft Hardware Utilization Request) on page 4:

Item G4016 and 06329 will be removed in MQF and will remain in MQF until return to LRL.

posted 08-14-2016 04:04 PM            

Okay. If you want to have a look at what the moon looks like, you can open that up and look. Don't open the bag, though.

posted 12-15-2016 04:15 PM               

Apollo 11 moon rock bag belongs to buyer, not NASA, judge rules

An Illinois woman is the legal owner of an Apollo 11 lunar sample storage bag that was mistakenly sold by the United States government at auction, a judge ruled on Wednesday (Dec. 14).

Judge J. Thomas Marten ruled in the U.S. District Court for Kansas that Nancy Carlson of Inverness, Illinois, obtained the title to the historic artifact as "a good faith purchaser, in a sale conducted according to law." The government had petitioned the court to reverse the sale and return the lunar sample bag to NASA.

"She is entitled to possession of the bag," Marten wrote in his order.

posted 12-18-2016 10:07 AM               

quote:

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Originally posted by music_space:
Would the buyer encounter any legal challenges should she elect to resell the item?

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posted 02-24-2017 12:26 PM               

With her title to the bag now ordered by the Kansas court, Carlson needs to file a motion in the U.S. District Court for Texas for its return from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Today I sat second chair in District Court Judge Gilmore's court (U.S. Southern District of Texas) in an unusual case. In this case Judge Gilmore awarded a lunar bag that once carried Apollo 11 moon rocks on the moon to a woman who lawfully bought the bag at a Government auction. That bag was confiscated by the Government absent a warrant which led to this litigation.

posted 02-25-2017 07:18 PM               

NASA to turn over Apollo 11 moon rock bag to auction winner, per court order

NASA, following a judge's order, will turn over an Apollo 11 moon rock bag to the Illinois woman who bought the artifact at a disputed auction.

Judge Vanessa Gilmore, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, ruled on Friday (Feb. 24) that Nancy Lee Carlson's property was "illegally seized" by the space agency. Gilmore ordered that the Apollo 11 lunar sample bag be "produced and handed over" to Carlson at NASA's Johnson Space Center on Monday (Feb. 27).

posted 01-23-2019 06:25 PM               

Woman sues NASA again over $2 million Apollo 11 moon rock bag

An Illinois woman has filed a lawsuit against NASA, claiming the agency damaged and improperly retained lunar material from an Apollo 11 moon rock collection bag that she previously sued over, won title to and then sold at auction for nearly $2 million.

Nancy Lee Carlson claims in her latest lawsuit that NASA and the actions of its lunar sample curator "diminished the fair market value" of her former property and caused her injury — "humiliation, embarrassment, emotional stress and anxiety" — in the process. She is seeking "an amount that is fair" to cover her emotional distress, the damage to the artifact and her legal expenses.