Re: Space law

Any idea on what legal basis they're making that claim? I can see making
the claim  of "national treasures" when it comes to rocks that _Apollo_
brought back. But that assumes that they're claiming some sort of
'ownership' over them to begin with.

-MM

On Fri, 2004-08-06 at 18:30, Randall Clague wrote:
> At 05:54 PM 8/6/2004 -0400, Michael Mealling wrote:
> >Is anyone aware of any legal research or disagreement around who 'owns'
> >the moon rocks that NASA brought back? I notice that no one ever
> >disputes the US's right to own those rocks and to transfer ownership to
> >someone else.
> 
> NASA claims ownership of the Apollo moon rocks, always has.  What's 
> annoying is that current U.S. government policy is that it owns all Apollo 
> moon rocks, on the grounds that they are, and I quote, "irreplaceable 
> national resources."  The gummint, I don't know if it's NASA or NSF, is 
> trying to impound all privately held Apollo moon rocks - even the ones it 
> gave away in the 1970s - on that basis.