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Museum Director Indicted for Stealing NASA Artifacts
NBrooke271 writes "Max Ary, former Director of the Kansas Cosmosphere, has been hit with an eleven-count federal indictment, charging that he sold NASA space artifacts on loan to the museum, including an astronaut's in-flight T-shirt, a control panel from Air Force One and an Apollo 12 water valve for a personal profit of around $180,000. 'Mr. Ary, on behalf of the Cosmosphere, continued to sign documents reporting and verifying to NASA that the watch was still in its possession and collection,' said U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren. Ary currently serves as the Executive Director of Omniplex Science Museum in Oklahoma City, where he has taken a leave of absence. Read official statements from the Cosmosphere, the Omniplex, and Ary's attorney regarding the indictment."
How much is that in $2 bills?
drop the Apollo 12 water valve and step away from the car!
Starsucks
I heard that NORAD tracks all kinds of space junk.
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
I wonder what kind of van you could trade for that?
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
Museum personel always felt something was Ary...
Anyone got a URL for the ebay-auction of that stuff?
A nose cone.
A NASA silk screen
A photographic spot meter
An RX3 spacesuit component.
Apollo 8 silk screens.
An Apollo 11 silk screen.
An Apollo13 bus bar battery cable that had been flown in space.
A sextant crown assembly that had been flown in space.
An in-flight crew shirt.
An Air Force One control panel.
A Noun 70 Code panel, loaned to the Cosmosphere by NASA that had been flow in space. It sold for $3,400. On April 4, 2001, Ary signed a report to NASA falsely stating the panel was still in the museum's collection.
An Apollo 12 water shut-off valve that had been flown in space.
A rotation controller.
A purge valve for a spacesuit.
A film canister.
Makes me want to go buy an airplane/auto salvage yard and Ebay off parts as "possible relics of the Soviet space program" which "may possibly" have crash landed in Bumfluck, Nebraska.
"No, No sir, that's not a hub cap from a 1971 Duster, thats the nose to Sputnik!"
-- Knowing too much can get you killed, but knowing who knows too much can make you rich.
Is this how Seinfeld got the astronaut's pen that writes upside-down?
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
Not that much? You saying $180,000 for a t-shirt is cheap? You obviously haven't been to Wal-Mart.
This is an example of how much money the private space industry can make. This guy made US$ 180,000 without even leaving the planet...
Amazing
http://www.dieblinkenlights.com
Who the hell would buy this crap? $180,000 for this junk?
Oh, I must have that water valve! Jeeves, fetch me my coat and have the Rolls Royce ready!
hello dear sirs my name is jamesh i are india (bihar) can u guide me install red had linux 9?
Sorry, could not resist:
circustantial: (adj) Where the prosecutor and defense atorney are particularly clownish...Judge Bozo presiding...
Yeah, well now we know where he got the $$ to build the Cosmosphere...
Seriously, anyone who has seen any movies knows you have to replace the things you took with elaborate replicas or holograms.
1. Establish world class museum.
2. ?????
3. Profit!
And so at long last, we know what secret lies behind the mysterious step 2: Secretly sell off all the good stuff!
Yep, I'm sure a water valve, a control panel, and a filthy t-shirt will get them real far. McGyver's got nothing on the Iranians.
How about that guy in Florida, years ago (IIRC) who found a depleted uranium nose cone in his junk yard. He thought it made neat sparks when he hit it with a screw driver.
Be the govt would go ape-sh!t if something like that moved through the mail.
Mr Beasely: "Your package sure is heavy, Dagwood, what's in it?"
Dagwood: "About 20 pounds of uranium."
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Maybe because it's annoying as fuck to keep hearing broadcasts like "The alleged suspect allegedly entered the appartment, and allegedly threatened the alleged minor with a knife."
..."
Unless you have a solid proof of this, you really should say "Maybe because it's allegedly annoying as fuck to
Thank god he didn't sell off the Omega 13!
Have you read my blog lately?
Ooh, I can imagine some intrepid Indiana Jones type going up to the altar of the bottle of tang, and very quickly and carefully replacing it with a bottle of Evian.
Then he hears an ominous rumbling, and looks up to see a very rotund 800 pound NASA engineer who has been living on nothing but Cheetos and tang rolling towards him, yelling "My Taaang! Bring back my Taaaaaanngg!".
A chase scene between shelves of old NASA junk ensues.
"Hey Fred, wasn't the Spirit of St Louis hanging up there before?"
"Ahhhh, I think it is out at the cleaners."
By the way, if anyone approaches you in a parking lot with a genuine V2 rocket in the back of their van it is ok to be suspicious.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning