Apollo 11

The Case of Colorado's Missing Moon Rocks

Last year, I wrote about the concerns that some of the moon rocks given away to various governments by the Nixon administration may have gone missing. A recent report from the Denver Post indicates the problem isn't just with other countries, it's right here at home. A set of moon rocks presented to Colorado's governor in 1974 which could be worth as much as $5 million on the black market appear to have disappeared.

Denver has one set of moon rocks on display on the third floor of the state Capitol. Those rocks were found around ten years ago in storage at the Colorado History Museum. A plaque with a golf-ball-sized sphere enclosing bits of the moon, was presented to Gov. John Vanderhoof by astronaut Jack Lousma on Jan. 9, 1974 but now it cannot be located. The Colorado History Museum doesn't have it nor does the Denver Museum of Nature & Science or the CU Heritage Center Space Exploration Gallery. A forensic-investigation student from the University of Phoenix believes they could be tucked away in the Colorado State Archives in boxes of Vanderhoof's personal effects. Richard Griffis has spent two months trying to find Colorado's Apollo 17 moon rocks. He is a student of Joseph Gutheinz, a retired NASA agent who in 1998 helped catch a man trying to sell Honduras' Apollo 17 moon rocks for $5 million. Gutheinz now teaches forensic investigation at the University of Phoenix and one of his assignments is for students to locate the lost moon rocks.

UPDATE: The rocks have been found. The rocks brought back by the Apollo 17 mission a are hanging in the home office of former Gov. John D. Vanderhoof. They will likely now find a home at a local museum or historical society.

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Space Pen Maker Commemorates Moon Landing

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Writing Instruments

The 40th anniversary of the moon landing of Apollo 11 is today July 20 and Fisher Space Pen Co.has made 1,000 limited edition AG7-40LE Space Pens to commemorate the event. The pen is designed as a replica of the historic anti-gravity model pen that was invented by company founder, Paul C. Fisher, in 1966 and flew aboard the Apollo missions. The 40th anniversary pen features a piece of "Kapton" foil, used as protective thermal insulation on the Apollo 11 Command module, Columbia, which carried the astronauts to the moon and back. The tiny piece is mounted in an acrylic dome sealed into the pen's cap.

The presentation case has a resin casting of the Neil Armstrong's famous footprint on the moon inset into the hinged lid. A magnetic pedestal allows the pen to sit on its own "launch pad" for display when the lid is closed. The sides of the case features a band of plated stainless steel engraved with a timeline that tells the moment-by-moment story of the mission's key events, from launch to splashdown. The pen is finished with black titanium nitride and engravings inlayed with 24-karat gold show the pen's sequential serial number, the names of the Apollo 11 crew and the image of an astronaut planting the American flag into the lunar surface. The limited edition ball-point pen and display case is $800 and is available on the Fisher website.

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Tags: apollo 11, Apollo11, moon landing, MoonLanding, space