Original photo by History in HD/ Unsplash
After spending eight days, three hours, 18 minutes, and 35 seconds in space — with 21 of those hours spent on the moon — Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins splashed down 920 miles southwest of Hawaii. The three NASA astronauts had achieved the seemingly impossible on a mission that was the very definition of “otherworldly.” But once back on Earth, they were back in the clutches of human bureaucracy — because after they landed, the Apollo 11 heroes had to fill out a U.S. Customs form.
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It's a factKnown for its space-y vibes, Pink Floyd provided the atmospheric and meandering 12-bar jam for Apollo 11’s historic landing. “There was a panel of scientists on one side of the studio, with us on the other,” wrote guitarist David Gilmour in 2009. “The song was called ‘Moonhead.’”
Later posted on the U.S. Customs and Border Protection website in honor of the flight’s 40th anniversary in 2009, the straight-laced form belies the very unearthly information written on the page. Flight number? Apollo 11. Layover? Moon. Cargo? Moon rock and moon dust samples. Anything that could lead to the spread of disease? TBD. NASA has confirmed that the form is authentic, though one spokesperson described it as “a little joke” played on the astronauts upon their return. Today, astronauts still go through customs on their way to and from the International Space Station. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield described passing through customs in Kazakhstan — after glimpsing the entire world through a small window only hours before — as “a funny but necessary detail of returning to Earth.”
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Discovered on the moon, the rock ______ is named after all three astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission.
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Discovered on the moon, the rock armalcolite (ARMstrong, ALdrin, and COLlins) is named after all three astronauts of the Apollo 11 mission.
NASA transferred the Apollo 11 astronauts from Hawaii to Houston in a “quarantine trailer.”
Uncertain whether the lunar surface was rife with unknown pathogens, NASA took every precaution to avoid a biological disaster. So the moment the hatch closed for Apollo 11’s return trip home, the quarantine began. After the astronauts splashed down in Hawaii, they exited the Command Module wearing a Biological Isolation Garment before being sealed inside a retrofitted Airstream trailer called the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF). Complete with a kitchen, sleeping area, and bathroom, the MQF had its air pressure set low (in case of a leak) and all air exiting the Airstream was meticulously filtered. The astronauts spent 88 hours in the quarantine trailer as they made the journey — tucked in the cargo hold of a C-141 aircraft — from Hawaii to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory in Houston, Texas, where they enjoyed a more spacious quarantine facility. They were released after a total of 21 days when physicians confirmed they didn’t have moon plague.
Darren Orf lives in Portland, has a cat, and writes about all things science and climate. You can find his previous work at Popular Mechanics, Inverse, Gizmodo, and Paste, among others.
