Have you seen this story about a woman auctioning off a bag once used by NASA to collect moon rocks from Apollo 11? It could sell for millions after she paid less than $1,000 for it, but she’s only allowed to sell it now after a legal fight with NASA.
So, is it legal to sell space memorabilia? Our Verify team did some digging to find out.
President Barack Obama in 2012 signed a bill granting astronauts from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions ownership of artifacts they kept.
But here’s the catch: That law says they can only keep items considered disposable, like a toothbrush, checklist or something that was supposed to be abandoned with the lunar module on the moon.
The law does not apply to later space programs, like the shuttle or International Space Station. And no one is allowed to privately own moon rocks or other lunar material from the Apollo missions.
However, that bag may contain only lunar dust, and that’s where there’s some gray area legally – and it’s why the woman is allowed to auction off that bag.
So, we can verify you can see space artifacts, but you need to know where it came from if you don’t want NASA’s lawyers coming after you.