14 DAY TRIAL // Upon returning from the Moon, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell decided it was a good idea to take one of 16-millimeter data acquisition camera (DAC) from the lunar module he and his team members used for their mission. Now, the US Government will settle the matter in court.
A lawsuit was brought against Mitchell last June, when the astronaut decided it was time to sell the camera, 40 years after the mission. NASA says that there's no reason why the man should have the camera, since it's not his property, and he has no documents to verify his ownership.
Mitchell asked US District Court Judge Daniel Hurley to dismiss the lawsuit against him, but the latter refused, so the former astronaut will now have to go to court and explain why he removed the camera from the lunar module, when the government clearly wanted it left on the Moon.
“Defendant's allegations that NASA intended the camera to be destroyed after the mission or that it routinely awarded used mission equipment to astronauts do not preclude as a matter of law Plaintiff's contrary allegation that Defendant impermissibly converted the camera,” Hurley explained, quoted by Space.