International Moon Day 2022: Buzz Aldrin Went Through Customs After Spending 22 Hours on Moon

Customs are responsible for the flow of goods arriving in a particular country. Be it gold, an excess amount of cash or anything that needs declaration must cross the hurdle of customs every time one plans to step into a foreign land. But have you ever heard of astronauts submitting their customs forms when they returned from the moon?

Former American astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who was part of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission, had shared a customs form on his Twitter handle saying: “Imagine spending 8 days in space, including nearly 22 hours on the moon and returning home to earth only to have to go through customs.”

The customs copy shared by Buzz Aldrin was obtained by Space.com and was verified by NASA.

“Yes, it’s authentic," NASA spokesperson John Yembrick told Space.com. “It was a little joke at the time."

The copy of the US Customs form filled out by Apollo 11 astronauts shows that their cargo contained moon rocks and some moon dust samples.

Thereafter, the astronauts were transported through an aircraft carrier U.S.S.Hornet where they were quarantined for three weeks in a small trailer. Some people would ask why? This is to make sure that they hadn’t bought any germs back from the moon. It is said that these astronauts wore biological containment suits when they walked out from USS Hornet.

The tweet saw some interesting reactions:

The customs form was posted on the website of the US Customs and Border Protection website in 2009 to mark Apollo 11 mission’s 40th anniversary.

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