The First Cosmic Quarantine

Why were NASA so scared of moon dust? Everyone remembers those iconic images of the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. The launch – Eagle’s touchdown – Neil Armstrong’s monumental first steps on the lunar surface – and the splash down back on Earth. But what’s less well remembered is what happened to the crew in the first few days of them returning back home. On their travels, the Apollo crew had picked up a cosmic hitchhiker, its name – moon dust. Simply put, NASA had no real idea of what problems the lunar dust could cause once on Earth, leaving them no choice but to impose a quarantine on the returning astronauts, locking them down for 21 days whilst studies were conducted.