NASA questions Apollo 13 astronaut James Lovell’s sale of checklist

Back in November of last year, astronaut James Lovell auctioned off a 70-page “Lunar Module Activation Checklist” with his own hand-written calculations that, among other things, ultimately saved the Apollo 13 crew. Apparently, NASA has taken issue with the sale.

The checklist, which sold for $388,375, was auctioned off through Heritage Auctions out of Dallas, Texas. Nearly two months after its sale, NASA has moved to halt the sale, bringing into question whether or not Lovell actually had the “title to the checklist”.

“We haven’t filed a claim against [the checklist],” NASA spokesman Bob Jacobs told collectSPACE. “But what we have done is notify the auction house that we are seeking proof of ownership of the artifact. In conjunction with that, we’ve also notified the office of the Inspector General, which would be responsible for any investigation.”

NASA’s latest inquiry follows a bit of a legal scuffle with Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell just a few months before the Apollo 13 checklist went to auction. The agency sought to sue Mitchell unless he returned a 16 mm camera that he took with him to the moon, which he apparently intended to sell. The case was settled shortly after, with Mitchell handing over the camera to NASA, who then donated it to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

It may look as if NASA’s agenda as of late is to aggressively hunt down space items from their astronauts, but Jacobs denied any such agenda.

“It’s a challenge to continually monitor the growing auctions community, which is usually how these items come to light,” he said in an email to the Associated Press. “This latest issue demonstrates a need to reach out to former astronauts and other former agency personnel who may have these kind of items.”

Source: AP