A Tennessee woman has filed a lawsuit against NASA, asserting that she should be allowed to keep a vial of moon dust given to her by famous astronaut Neil Armstrong.
Laura Murray Cicco said her father knew Armstrong when he was teaching at the University of Cincinnati. Armstrong had given her the vial when she was 10 years old, along with a note that said, “To Laura Ann Murray — Best of Luck — Neil Armstrong Apollo 11.” She said she did not see the vial again until five years ago, after her parents had died and she found it among their things.
“I came running where my husband was and I said, ‘This is the vial of moon dust. I have it,'” Cicco said, according to the Washington Post. “At that time, we didn’t really know what to do with it.”
Cicco’s attorney, Christopher McHugh, said in the past NASA has seized what it suspects to be lunar material. When Cicco found the vial, she decided to sue the agency before it could take what was “rightfully” hers. Her lawsuit disputes a claim NASA made in 2011 court case that prohibits private citizens from owning lunar material.
