Washington, Feb. 9 (BUS): The Apollo 16 capsule has been dusty all these decades after carrying three astronauts to the moon. Cobwebs cling to the spacecraft. Business cards, a pencil, money, a spoon and even a tube of lip balm litter the floor of the giant case that protects the antique space in the museum.
The COVID-19 pandemic has meant an interruption in the normal routine of cleaning the ship’s display at the United States Space and Missile Center, located near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. But workers beautify the spacecraft for the 50th anniversary of its flight in April 1972.
Using microfiber towels, extension poles, a brush, dust-sticks and vacuum cleaners, a crew recently cleaned the 6.5-ton, 11-foot-long capsule and wiped the glass enclosure beneath a massive Saturn V rocket suspended from the ceiling. They removed dozens of items that people had stuck through cracks in the case.
Aside from supervising the cleanup, consulting curator Ed Stewart has taught museum staff how to preserve the capsule, which has been borrowed from the Smithsonian Institution and has been on display in Huntsville’s “Rocket City” since the 1970s, according to the Associated Press.
Dusting the side of the capsule while wearing protective clothing, Stewart said the drive unit was “in very good shape” given its age and how long it had been since its last cleaning about three years ago.
Richard Hoover, a retired NASA astrobiologist who is a lecturer at the museum, remembers a time decades ago when visitors could touch a spacecraft. Some have even picked up pieces of the charred heat shield that protects the ship from burning as it re-enters Earth’s atmosphere, he said.
“It’s really a farce because they don’t realize that this is a very important part of space history,” he said.
Conservation measures changed as conservationists realized that a ship built to withstand the rigors of space travel did not hold up well under the constant touch of tourists, Stewart said. That is why the casing surrounding the capsule is closed.
“Making it last for 1,000 years was not on the engineer’s list of requirements to develop to take astronauts to the moon and back safely,” he said.
The capsule – nicknamed “Casper” during the flight – is tilted above poles, so visitors can peer into the open hatch and see the controls and the metal-framed seats where astronauts Ken Mattingly, John Young and Charlie Duke rode to the moon and back.
Duke, who walked on the moon with Young while Mattingly drove the capsule, is expected to attend a celebration this spring to mark the 50th anniversary of the flight’s liftoff on April 16, 1972.
The capsule has been cleaned and any potentially dangerous materials removed after the flight, but there are still reminders of her trip to the moon inside. Leaning through the hole to check for dust, Stewart pointed out a few dark spots above his head.
Workers plan to seal the capsule case further so that visitors can’t deposit anything inside, but they were careful not to do too much for the Apollo 16 itself.
Stewart said that while it would be easy to clean a spaceship with elbow grease, doing so would destroy the patina that associates it with history.
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