Lunar Rip-Off

Apollo astronauts are permitted to carry "Personal preference kits," in which they put small souvenir items for themselves, families and friends.

But NASA strictly forbids any commercial exploitation of such mementos.

Last week, after an elaborate investigation, NASA announced that the three Apollo 15 astronauts, David Scott, James Irwin and Alfred Worden, had carried 400 unauthorized stamped envelopes to the moon and back. Through an intermediary, 100 copies of the moon mail were eventually purchased by a German philatelist named Hermann Sieger, who in turn sold 99 of them for a reported $1,500 apiece.

Part of the money was to go into a trust fund for the education of the astronauts' children. The astronauts be gan to feel a bit queasy about the arrangement and finally cancelled plans for the trust fund. They never actually profited from the sale. Still, NASA officially reprimanded the trio and suggested that their future assignments were in jeopardy. Irwin has already announced his retirement, and Worden is being eased out of the space program. But Scott was reportedly in line for a general's star, and the job of chief of the Astronaut Office in Houston.

The situation was embarrassing for everyone -- except Philatelist Sieger. Last week the price of each piece of moon mail rose to $1,760.

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