Durham teen discovers piece of shuttle history [Found piece of Apollo 16]

NBC, Channel 17 ^ | Saturday, July 9, 2011 | Penn Holderness

[Fresh Wind]

Are these reporters really so brain dead as not knowing that Apollo 16 was not a space shuttle?

The spel chekker didn't flag it, so it got thru.

[ken5050]

I can’t figure out why NASA wanted it back...

[stationkeeper]

Maybe someone should put the “journalist” in contact with John Young, since he commanded both 16 and the first shuttle flight.

[lonestar]

NO! Pelosi.

[neal1960]

"Any beachcombers out there? Do you often find large chunks of METAL?" I search Myrtle Beach each time we go, using my metal detector. I have found hundreds of small chunks of metal.

[pepperdog]

I just wonder how many jobs across the country have been lost?

[Atlas Sneezed]

Probably not legally arguable. If property of the government, such as a few German tanks found in a river were still property of the German government (note, the Third Reich built the tanks, not the present German govt), then pieces of the space craft would also be property of the government.

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The law may treat discarded trash differently.

[GladesGuru]

I had assumed it was not a disposable part. My error.

Thanks for pointing out that difference.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Weird. Maybe a piece of one of the many rockets that have exploded during launch, maybe a piece of a crashed aircraft, maybe something totally else.

[buccaneer81]

Excellent point!

[Prospero]

This one bleeds irony, personally. (I live eight miles from Bath, on the water and was nearby then this priceless relic choose someone else's shoreline to surface.)

Congress gave its final approval to the Shuttle program quite literally while Young & Duke were exploring the Cayley Plains north of the Descartes formation, in the lunar highlands. Young, the ninth of our species to set foot on the Moon, would become the Shuttle's first pilot, with Bob Crippen in the starboard seat, nine years later.

The program was planned for 1976 and finally got into orbit in 1981. It was built around the dimensions of the Hubble, and the HST was supposed to be up long before it's nearsighted long-delayed launch in 1990.

Pardon me if I am less than optimistic about NASA's future manned spaceflight program, right now. (We may still end up going to sleep "by the light of a communist Moon.")