Chicago Area Woman Wins Custody Battle For Bag Of Moon Dust
(CBS) -- A priceless piece of national space history is now in the possession of a Chicago area woman.
The space artifact is from the Apollo 11 mission, when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Alrdrin first stepped foot on the moon.
CBS 2's Marissa Bailey reports.
On July 16, 1969, the first humans walked on the moon. Armstrong and Aldrin collected moon rocks to be studied for years to come.
Upon touchdown, Armstrong used one little bag to quickly put samples in a bag.
That bag and its contents are now owned by an Inverness woman named Nancy Lee Carlson.
"I guess you could call her a little bit of a space geek, maybe a hobbyist. She has an interest in these types of things and she saw this and it interested her," Carlson attorney Christopher M. McHugh says.
His client saw the bag on a U.S. Marshal's auction page last year and had the winning bid of $995.
She sent it to NASA to confirm it was real, but NASA claimed it was their property and wouldn't send it back.
Carlson filed a lawsuit, and last week a Houston judge ruled the bag belonged to her.
She is now the owner of a real Apollo 11 space bag covered in moon dust particles.
The bag is now in possession of a security company, until Carlson figures out the next step.
For now, it's mission accomplished.
