Apollo 11 was the
spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, Americans Neil Armstrong
and Buzz Aldrin, on July 20, 1969; Armstrong became the first to step onto the
lunar surface six hours later on July 2.
The third member of the mission,
Michael Collins, piloted the command spacecraft alone in lunar orbit until
Armstrong and Aldrin returned to it. It
was so near and yet so far for Collins !
An interesting
report in MailOnline describes that Aldrin billed NASA $33.31 for the historic
space journey, which is thought to have included his rental car to Cape
Kennedy. He had to fill-up Immigration
form too – the U.S. custom form from the 1969 space trip shows he brought back
'moon dust' and 'moon rock' samples as cargo.
Legendary astronaut
Buzz Aldrin has revealed some captivating pieces of Apollo 11 memorabilia on
social media in the last few days.Among them is the travel voucher for the
historic journey into space in 1969.One sheet shows that his return journey
from Houston, Texas, via the moon, cost only $33.31. Adjusted for inflation,
that would be about $216.59 in today's U.S. currency. He also shared a photo of the signed customs
form the astronauts had to complete when they returned to the U.S. from the
moon.
Once he filed his
claim, Aldrin was presented with a check by the government reimbursing him for
the grand total of $33.31. Aldrin, now
85, posted pictures of the aged-looking papers on his Twitter and Facebook
accounts.On the travel voucher featuring his out-of-pocket expenses, the
details of the trip were noted as being on a 'government vehicle' and
'government spacecraft'.
After receiving
hundreds of comments and questions from fans, Aldrin took to social media again
where he shared the signed customs form that detailed what the astronauts
brought back from the moon.In the photo's caption, Aldrin noted they declared
'moon rocks' and 'moon dust samples' to the customs officials.The form, which
is dated July 24, 1969, is signed by both Neil Armstrong, who was the first man
on the moon, and Aldrin, who was Apollo 11's Lunar Module pilot.
The 46th
anniversary of the historical Apollo 11 moon landing was recently celebrated on
July 20.
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar
10th Aug
2015.
Photos & news source : www.dailymail.co.uk
