Cosmic luck: NASA’s Apollo 11 moon quarantine broke down

A recent review of NASA archives has shown that quarantine protocols launched during the Apollo 11 mission to secure Earth from any lunar-based microbial contamination were entirely inadequate. While NASA believed that its quarantine facilities in Houston would keep the samples and equipment brought back from the moon safe. A study in the science history journal Isis found that Dr. Dagomar Degroot discovered that NASA was aware the quarantine probably wouldn’t work. NASA spent millions of dollars on securing the Lunar Receiving Laboratory which had several problems, though some of their findings were kept hidden from the public.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/09/science/nasa-moon-quarantine.html

To top