NASA is suing the sixth man on the moon, seeking to recover an Apollo 14 camera that the astronaut brought back to Earth with him as a souvenir.

In 1971, Edgar Mitchell landed on the moon.  Upon returning home, Mitchell brought with him a movie camera that had been on the lunar lander.  According to Mitchell, NASA agreed to let astronauts keep some mission mementos.  Mitchell chose the camera which NASA had slated to be destroyed with the lunar lander that was allowed to crash into the moon after completing its mission of ferrying Mitchell and Alan Shepard between the command module and the moon's surface.  NASA had planned to bring back the film, but had no interest in the camera.  NASA now claims it had no record of the camera being given to Mitchell.

In June, NASA filed a lawsuit against Mitchell seeking return of the camera after it learned of Mitchell's plan to sell it.  Recently, U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hurley denied Mitchell's motion to dismiss the lawsuit. and ruled that the case will go to trial in 2012.

Mitchell's attorney argued that too many years had passed for the government to now pursue the claim and that the camera was not stolen but rather was a gift to Mitchell.

Judge Hurley disagreed with both arguments, noting that, "It is well settled that the United States is not bound by state statutes of limitation or subject to the defense of laches in enforcing its rights" and that it was "inappropriate" for the court to consider whether the camera was stolen or the subject of a gift or abandonment.

"Defendant's allegations that NASA intended the camera to be destroyed after the mission or that it routinely awarded used mission equipment to astronauts do not preclude as a matter of law Plaintiff's contrary allegation that Defendant impermissibly converted the camera," Hurley wrote.

The case will go to trial in 2012.

—Source:  Space.com