Alabama Man Sold a Priceless Apollo-Era Lunar Rover Protoype For Scrap Metal (vice.com)

Jason Koebler writes: An Alabama man allowed an Apollo-era lunar rover prototype to rot in his backyard before ultimately selling it to a junkyard for scrap metal last year, according to documents acquired from NASA as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. NASA spent much of 2014 attempting to acquire the priceless artifact for display in a museum, but it was ultimately destroyed before the agency could recover it.

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[Rurik]

NASA Agency Bureaucracy Lets Historic Antique Slip From Their Fingers

If it didn't take them six months to reach out... Even a quick call "Hey, this is NASA. We heard you have one of our rovers. Could we just send someone over to verify?"

Not a loss - this is the correct outcome.

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

I like NASA. I like space exploration. However, I don't like NASA spending its limited time and resources to buy up antiques when it could be working on MORE space exploration.

Re:Not a loss - this is the correct outcome.

[Aboroth]

That is an extremely short-sighted viewpoint. Money isn't everything. First of all, if all you care about it direct funding from it, they would easily be able to monetize this by reselling it at auction. Putting it in a museum would enrich people's lives, which is invaluable. Having displays with things like this, are ways people get inspired to do what they can to help in space exploration, either through their own talents or with donations. These "antiques" could very well inspire the next generation of space explorers, which are kind of necessary because the ones we have now are expected to die at some point.

Re:He probably has a grudge

[Anonymous Coward]

You think it's funny to laugh about the 'ignorant' Alabama-man because it is easier than wrapping your brain around the fact that Alabama put man on the moon.

Re:I'll bite

[cdrudge]

NASA dragged its feet contacting the new owner, who apparently didn't know its value.

Sure NASA dragged it's feet. But I wonder if the historian walked over to the neighbor's house, knocked on the door, and mentioned that he though the guy had a piece of priceless artifact from NASA's history just sitting there. Even if the guy wasn't interested in contacting NASA right then, at least he would have known before he just scrapped it.

Re:Leave it to idiots..

[smooth wombat]

Considering the percentage of people who still voted for Bush after he ignored six months of daily warnings of an impending attack and allowed the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history to take place, then compounded his incompetence by letting Bin Laden because he refused every request by troops on the ground for more troops to block Bin Laden's escape at Tora Bora, or the fact he then set out on an unprecedented lying campaign to justify invading and occupying Iraq which had nothing to do with the attacks, I will agree with you... You need no further proof that you can't fix stupid, and it isn't limited to Alabama.

Re:Leave it to idiots..

[LynnwoodRooster]

GORTON: Now, since my yellow light is on, at this point my final question will be this: Assuming that the recommendations that you made on January 25th of 2001, based on Delenda, based on Blue Sky, including aid to the Northern Alliance, which had been an agenda item at this point for two and a half years without any action, assuming that there had been more Predator reconnaissance missions, assuming that that had all been adopted say on January 26th, year 2001, is there the remotest chance that it would have prevented 9/11?

CLARKE: No.

Richard Clarke's sworn testimony to the 9/11 commission. Clarke was President Clinton's terror czar. Too late by the time the Bush Administration took over. Per President Clinton's own terror czar. I know, facts and sworn testimony are always an issue when you have a political axe to grind...

spent much of 2014 attempting to acquire

[Culture20]

NASA spent much of 2014 attempting to acquire the priceless artifact for display in a museum

Sounds like they didn't try too hard if they couldn't compete with a scrap yard.

Re:Leave it to idiots..

[LynnwoodRooster]

Per Clarke - it was already too late to stop it. Nothing that could have been done based upon information available and recommendations/intelligence from the Clinton Administration. It's what Clarke stated in sworn testimony to Senator Gorton - copied above.

Re: I'll bite

[Coren22]

Just look at the treatment to Lee's battle flag recently, that is pure racism against the people who fought for state's rights. (hint, the average southerner had nothing to do with slavery, the slave owners were too wealthy to fight in the war).

Racism is ok (to the Democrats) when it is white people that are the butt of the joke, they also don't like Asians for some reason, so making fun of natives of India, and China, is perfectly acceptable, but talk about how 90% of gang violence is black people, or that there are crimes being committed against the Hispanics crossing the border (as Trump did), and suddenly you are a terrible racist.