Apollo 11 Lunar Dust from the Terry Slezak Collection


Dust On Transparent Tape From Apollo 11	Spaceflori Certificate Of Authenticity For Dust

Close-up Of Apollo 11 Lunar Dust	Close-up Of Copy Of Terry Slezak Note On Cert.

Terry Slezak With Lunar Dust In LRL Quarantine	Apollo 11 Flown 70 mm Film Magazine "V"

This display contains a triangular shape swatch of transparent adhesive tape that contains actual lunar dust that returned to Earth on the Apollo 11 mission. Astronaut Armstrong accidentally dropped the lunar EVA 70 mm film magazine onto the lunar surface during the EVA. This magazine was picked up and then transferred back to the lunar module.

When this magazine was brought back to Earth, it was handled by a photographic technician in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. The name of the technician was Terry Slezak. He became the first person to touch moondust with his bare hands on Earth.

In one of the above photos, you can see Mr. Slezak in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas displaying the dust on his finger tips to reporters. Slezak was in quarantine and behind glass at this point. He is also holding the film magazine that was dropped on the lunar surface. This magazine which contained the lunar EVA photos was magazine "S".

To give a better idea of what these Hasseblad magazines look like, a photo of another magazine that flew on Apollo 11 is shown above. This magazine is on display at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. That magazine labeled "V" has been signed by Buzz Aldrin. Magazine "V" did not make it to the lunar surface.

The moon dust was cleaned from film magazine "S" by applying transparent adhesive tape to the magazine to capture the dust. Later, a presentation board was made up for Mr. Slezak by the NASA photo division which included a piece of the transparent tape with the dust on it.

In the Fall 2001 Superior Space Auction, Mr. Slezak consigned the presentation for sale. Florian Noller purchased the lot at that auction. Subsequently, Mr. Noller removed the dust laden transparent adhesive tape swatch from the display and divided it into smaller portions. This triangular piece is one of those portions. A closeup of the dust swatch is shown above.

A certificate of Authenticity was provided by Mr. Noller which stated, "I certify that the tape swatch mounted on the spaceflori "The Dust" certificate contains authentic moondust from the Sea of Tranquility on the moon. I acquired the original source artifact - a poster board with an apollo 11 moondust swatch attached - from Superior Space Auction Fall 12001 Sale where it had been consigned by tee original recipient Mr. Terry Slezak. I have mounted on the "The Dust" presentation certificate. The remaining dust swatch and original poster board are in my possession.

The history of the original source poster board is as follows. It was given to Mr. Terry Slezak, a NASA photographer from JSC who, in the course of his duties became the first man to touch moon dust with his bare hands. One of Mr. Slezak's jobs for NASA was to take the cameras from the astronauts after their flights, unload and clean them, and make "Quick Prints" of the photos so they could be checked and explained by the astronauts while the scenes were still fresh in their minds. By all accounts, Mr. Slezak did this for Apollos 7 through 10 with little or no problems. There were also no problems with Apollo 11 film magazines until he came to Magazine "S". When he opened Magazine "S" he suddenly found his hands covered with moon dust. Unbeknownst to him the camera had apparently been dropped on the surface of the moon!! This caused a major alarm at NASA as nobody at that time knew if moon dust contained pathogens that could wipe out life on earth. To prevent this possibility, all lunar material was kept under negative air pressure and even the astronauts were put in quarantine to see if any symptoms developed. Mr. Slezak was immediately quarantined as well and paced in the same quarantine trailer with the Apollo 11 Astronauts. Florian Noller, The Spaceflori Corporation."

Also on this certificate is an image of a hand written certificate by Mr. Slezak that attest to the origin of this artifact. Mr. Slezak wrote, "This is my most prized possession from the Apollo program. The photo Div. Made up the board when I became the first person to touch the moon dust with bare hands. It contains the metallic label from the "famous" magazine S, skin from the spacecraft, autographs of all 3 astronauts AND probably the first note ever written from the moon. It also has some moon dust taken off when I cleaned the magazine. Terry"

The Earth To The Moon Air & Space Museum acquired this lunar dust swatch artifact from the Spaceflori Corporation.