ProjectMercury Astronauts, 1960
By: Curt Anderson, AP LegalAffairs Writer
MIAMI (AP).- January 10, 2012
"Thehead of NASA met Monday with former astronauts to discuss who owns spaceartifacts from moon shots and other missions, saying afterward that the agencywill work cooperatively with them to resolve what's recently become acontentious issue.
NASAchief Charles Bolden said in a statement that there have been "fundamentalmisunderstandings and unclear policies" regarding items that astronautstook home from the Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs. The statementmarks a switch from NASA's recent confrontational stance, which included suingApollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell in Miami federal court over rights to a 16mmvideo camera that went to the moon.
"Theseare American heroes, fellow astronauts, and personal friends who have acted ingood faith, and we have committed to work together to find the right policy andlegal paths forward to address outstanding ownership questions," Boldensaid.
Mitchelland other astronauts have said NASA officials told them long ago they couldkeep certain equipment from the missions, and over the years collectors havepaid millions for space items.
Monday'smeeting followed stories by The Associated Press and others last week on NASAraising questions about whether Apollo 13 commander James Lovell had the rightto sell a 70-page checklist from Apollo 13, which received a bid at a Novemberauction of more than $388,000. It is valuable because it contains Lovell'shandwritten calculations considered key to navigating the crippled spacecraftback to Earth following an oxygen tank explosion.
In aletter to Dallas-based Heritage Auctions, NASA also questioned the ownership oftwo items from Apollo 9 astronaut Rusty Schweickart — a lunar moduleidentification plate and a hand controller — and a glove worn by Alan Shepardduring training for Apollo 14. Those also received sizable bids in the Novemberauction.
Schweickartalso attended the Monday meeting, according to NASA, along with fellow Apolloastronauts Gene Cernan and Charlie Duke.
Boldensaid the ownership discussions will explore "all policy, legislative andother legal means" to resolve ownership issues "and ensure thatappropriate artifacts are preserved and available for display to the Americanpeople."
Anassistant said Monday that Lovell was traveling and wasn't immediatelyavailable to comment. The checklist and other items from the November auctionare being kept in a Heritage Auctions vault pending outcome of the inquiry,company officials said.
Mitchelland others have said they were given broad latitude in deciding which artifactsthey could take home.
Beforehe settled the camera lawsuit with NASA, Mitchell produced a 2002 letter from aformer director at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston that appeared to backup their position. That letter, signed by retired director Christopher KraftJr., said that he approved a policy allowing Apollo astronauts to keep personalitems that flew with them as well anything from the lunar landing module thatwas abandoned on the moon anyway.
Heaven.(Dante and Beatrice gaze upon the highest heavens. From Gustave Doré’s illustrations to theDivine Comedy, 1867.)
"It wasgenerally accepted that the astronauts could bring back pieces of equipment orhardware from this spacecraft for a keepsake of these journeys," Kraftwrote.
Thatletter, however, does not address whether astronauts can sell the items. In itsletter to the auction house, NASA insisted only the agency can approve suchartifacts for sale."
NOTE:
Growing up in the 1950s and 1960s, I regardedastronauts and NASA personnel almost as family members. Life Magazine, Walter Cronkite and school pedagogy all encouraged this and it seemed to makesense. (The Beatles were sort of familymembers also, but because they lived in England, not Florida, this was quitedifferent.) I think Iknew (as everyone else did also) every sight, sound, snap, crackle,roar ofmanned spaceflight, and of course also the sound of amplified heavy breathingand static-y cross-talk. I was a virtualproudmember of Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo. (Ithink I still am, but meetings seem to have been suspended indefinitely.)
The summer of 1969 – season of Armstrong,Aldrin & Collins, Woodstock, the Manson Family and Easy Rider – seemed at the time like the uncertain culminationof something - edginginto a new decade of more war, An American Family, and adulthood.
This sad AP article reminds me a lot of my ownfamily. Endless, bloody fights over money and objects; lawsuits; possession is 9/10ths of the law positioning;living and dead people scribing notarized hate letters.
Even feckless NASA caretakerCharles Boldenfinally seems embarrassed about his presiding-over-extinction assignment.
No wonder I moved away from Long Island.
Wait: They did first.
Music Link:
Heaven Is In Your Mind --Traffic (1967)
Lunar Portrait of Marvinthe Martian (Property of NASA).
No comments:
Post a Comment