NASA Loses Track of Large Batch of Lunar Samples

Officials at the American space agency admitted recently that numerous Moon rocks, and meteorite and gas samples, cannot be accounted for, after being loaned to various research groups, museums and universities around the country.

An internal report compiled by NASA Inspector General Paul Martin revealed that 517 so-called astromaterials have been either lost, or stolen from the space agency, mainly between 1970 and 2010.

Some of the most important samples that were misplaced or stolen include meteorites that separated from asteroids, the Moon or even Mars, samples from lunar rocks and soils, cosmic dust from comets and deep space, as well as dust collected from our planet's own stratosphere.

NASA has more than 140,000 samples from the Moon, 18,000 samples from meteorites, and about 5,000 samples from comets, cosmic dust and solar winds. Roughly 26,000 of these samples are on loan to various groups, The Telegraph reports.