posted 02-18-2013 03:10 AM               

At the heart of this litigation odyssey is the little-known story of how a group of Christian faithful at Johnson Space Center, called the Apollo Prayer League, engineered a plan to have astronauts with the Apollo program in the 1960s and 1970s ferry microscopic editions of the King James Bible to the moon.

The subsequent dueling court battles center on whether a 91-year-old former NASA chaplain, John Stout, and his wife, Mary Helen — who have been declared wards of the state — are being held against their will in the Texas guardianship program and whether an Oklahoma Christian author, who claims she was given one of these highly collectible religious relics to auction for the elderly couple, was taking advantage of them.

posted 02-18-2013 03:11 AM               

Lawsuits leave lunar bibles in limbo: Legal battle over space-flown scriptures

Miniature bibles that flew to the moon more than 40 years ago are now at the center of a custody dispute between the author who wrote about their history and the state caring for the reverend who was behind their creation.

The two-year legal battle, which became public on Sunday (Feb. 17) through the reporting of the Houston Chronicle, began in 2010 when the Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services (DADS) intervened in a Dallas auction to prevent Oklahoma Christian author Carol Mersch from selling one of the so-called "lunar bibles" at auction.

posted 05-08-2017 10:36 AM               

Disputed 'lunar bibles' land with Oklahoma author after state cedes claim

A six-year custody dispute over miniature bibles carried by a NASA astronaut to the surface of the moon has ended with a state agency dropping its claim to the lunar artifacts.

The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services, or DADS, abandoned its pursuit of the religious lunar relics in late April, just days before a court hearing was due to rule on the disposition of the microfilmed King James Bibles, which had been carried by the late moonwalker Ed Mitchell aboard NASA's Apollo 14 mission in 1971. Accordingly, an Oklahoma judge ordered that the small printed squares be returned to Tulsa-based author Carol Mersch, according to the Associated Press.