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    3. Spaceflight

Apollo 11 Astronauts Spent 3 Weeks in Quarantine, Just in Case of Moon Plague

   By Meghan Bartels published 24 July 19

   The headlines in the wake of Apollo 11 could have been very, very
   different.
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   Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong seen inside the Mobile
   Quarantine Facility during the 2.5-day trip back to port on the USS
   Hornet, which picked them up when they splashed down.
   Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong seen inside the Mobile
   Quarantine Facility during the 2.5-day trip back to port on the USS
   Hornet, which picked them up when they splashed down. (Image credit:
   NASA)

   It would have been the ultimate contingency of Apollo 11: What if the
   astronauts returning home unleashed upon Earth something dangerous and
   foreign to science -- moon germs?

   Before Apollo 11 set out, NASA couldn't be positive that, if bits of
   dust or potential microorganisms got loose back home, life on Earth
   would be safe. Needless to say, accidentally setting a lunar plague
   loose on the inhabitants of Earth would have erased all the good
   publicity garnered by accomplishing the moon landing in the first
   place. Just in case, in addition to the protections they were
   establishing to make sure the moon rocks remained free of terrestrial
   contamination, NASA decided to establish a three-week quarantine for
   the crew of Apollo 11.

   "Initially, NASA thought that all they really needed was a clean room
   to handle the packaging of the lunar samples in a vacuum," Judith
   Hayes, chief of NASA's biomedical research and environmental sciences
   division, told Space.com. "They started really wrapping their head
   around this, is my understanding. They said, 'We've really never done
   this before, so we're not really sure,' even though I think most of the
   scientists didn't firmly believe that there might be a risk."

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   The quarantine was treated all along as a better-safe-than-sorry
   operation. The day before Apollo 11 splashed down, support staff had
   already entered quarantine in Houston to prepare for the crew's
   arrival, and The New York Times reported: "Twelve men are in absolute
   quarantine here because of something that probably does not exist."

   The problem was, though, if that threat turned out to be a reality,
   things would get very ugly. "The quarantine program was created out of
   an abundance of caution," Jason Schwartz, a historian of medicine at
   the Yale School of Public Health, told Space.com. "You had a very, very
   small risk of something that could be very, very, very significant."

   When the Apollo missions were launching, public health professionals
   had generally moved on from crude tools like quarantines, he said. "By
   the 1960s, we were really in the golden age of vaccines and
   immunizations," Schwartz said, particularly for diseases like polio,
   measles and mumps. "There was great optimism that the war against
   infectious diseases was being won," and he said that could have
   contributed to a fear of backsliding if Apollo went very wrong.

   And the prospect of moon germs also mirrored a real public health
   concern at the time, of novel pathogens that the population had never
   had a chance to build an immunity to. It's a fear that remains with us
   today, which was sparked at the time by, for example, new influenza
   strains popping up on occasion. If something nasty hitched a ride back
   from the moon, it would have been the epitome of a novel pathogen. And,
   it would have driven doctors and public health practitioners way beyond
   their comfort zone.

   Related: The Weirdest Things Apollo Astronauts Left on the Moon

   "This was a different story than most public health efforts at the
   time, because typically, when we think about treatments, antibiotics,
   vaccines, quarantines, we're thinking about known viruses or bacteria
   with distinct symptoms, distinct modes of transmission that we know
   about and we can apply that knowledge to figure out how to tailor the
   public health response," Schwartz said. "In this case, it was
   responding to an unknowable, responding to a very slim but still
   nonzero uncertainty. How do you tailor a public health response when
   you're not sure what exactly you're concerned about or what it looks
   like or how it might affect humans at all?"

   In the absence of any precisely honed tools to combat the potential
   threat, NASA used the blunt approach of a quarantine. The details of
   the plan were based on tackling a disease like the plague, according to
   a 1999 oral history given by Charles Berry, who was in charge of
   medical operations during Apollo.

   The quarantine procedures began three weeks before launch, when the
   astronauts went into isolation to reduce the odds they would catch
   anything that NASA would later need to identify as terrestrial or
   lunar. For Apollo 11, Berry said, the prelaunch quarantine was nearly
   derailed by President Richard Nixon, who wanted to eat dinner with the
   crew the evening before launch. It was Berry's job to explain why that
   simply wasn't an option -- the closest he said he believed he ever came
   to being fired.

   "If [the astronauts] came down with anything, whatever it was, a cough,
   a sniffle, or anything else, we were going to have to prove that it
   didn't come from the moon," Berry told the interviewer. "So I think it
   would be pretty stupid to let somebody just walk into that situation.
   It would have been a total breakdown of the program."

   (Astronauts today are also quarantined before their launch, but only
   because carrying terrestrial germs into orbit would be deeply
   unpleasant.)

   Nixon shooed off and quarantine preserved, the trio of astronauts
   climbed aboard their rocket and blasted off on the historic journey. As
   they wrapped up their time on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin
   abandoned some of their equipment, including their boot covers, in part
   to reduce the odds they would bring back any lunar threats. The 21-day
   quarantine clock began ticking as soon as the pair stepped off the moon
   and closed the hatch on the lunar module.

   They rejoined their colleague, Michael Collins, and headed back to
   Earth, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. But the
   astronauts still had more than two weeks of quarantine left, and NASA
   had decided it wasn't safe to simply hoist the newly returned command
   module onto the aircraft carrier sent to fetch the astronauts.

   The rescue crew had to send a swimmer to the spacecraft to open the
   hatch and throw in biological isolation garments for the astronauts to
   put on -- spacesuits for Earth use only, essentially, with tightly
   woven fabric that would contain particles; rubber gloves; and a
   built-in breathing system.

   The quarantine procedure began with biological isolation garments,
   which the Apollo 11 crew donned while leaving the command module and
   wore until they entered the Mobile Quarantine Facility seen in the
   right foreground.
   The quarantine procedure began with biological isolation garments,
   which the Apollo 11 crew donned while leaving the command module and
   wore until they entered the Mobile Quarantine Facility seen in the
   right foreground. (Image credit: NASA)

   That made splashdown the biggest weakness in the quarantine system, as
   Collins has said in interviews looking back at the mission. "When you
   open that hatch, we had stuff come into the air, without any question
   about it," Berry said in his oral history. "You know, if it had been
   lunar plague, I don't know what would have happened. I didn't believe
   we were going to have lunar plague, but I couldn't go on the basis that
   we weren't."

   Once the astronauts had donned their isolation suits, they climbed on
   board the ship sent to rescue them, then into the Mobile Quarantine
   Facility, a trailer NASA had converted to house them. The crew spent
   2.5 days in the trailer as they sailed to port in Hawaii, then boarded
   a plane to Houston. Back in NASA's astronaut headquarters, the trailer
   was connected to the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, a special facility the
   agency had built at what is now the Johnson Space Center.

   The building included quarantine quarters as well as lab space for
   preparing and studying moon rocks. The crew section was large enough to
   hold more than 100 people if something went very wrong, Hayes said, and
   included a kitchen, a lounge, a library and a collection of surgical
   and medical examination rooms.

   Neil Armstrong celebrated his 39th birthday on Aug. 5, 1969, while
   still in quarantine. According to NASA the cake was "standard
   two-layer, plain vanilla" and decorated with 39 candles.
   Neil Armstrong celebrated his 39th birthday on Aug. 5, 1969, while
   still in quarantine. According to NASA the cake was "standard
   two-layer, plain vanilla" and decorated with 39 candles. (Image credit:
   NASA)

   "It was, I think, quite comfortable," Hayes said. "Talking to the crews
   from back then and the flight surgeon, they did say that -- you know,
   it wasn't bad. After spending time in a capsule, being in the
   quarantine facility was quite comfortable." Armstrong even celebrated
   his birthday in the quarantine building.

   The crew and about 20 companions waited out the rest of the quarantine
   period in the facility, without particular concerns about the
   possibility they were infected. "I got the impression that ... the
   [astronauts] were not worried," Hayes said. "They had daily exams from
   their flight surgeons ... they were being carefully watched by the
   flight surgeons and the scientists in the quarantine." Scientists were
   also monitoring mice that had been exposed to lunar samples in case
   they showed signs of distress, but all did well.

   But by the end of the 21 days, newspapers reported that the astronauts
   were ready to get back to exploring Earth. "I'm ready any time they
   want to open that door," Aldrin said according to The New York Times.
   "Take my blood. Marvelous idea. Why didn't I think of that sooner?" the
   paper reported Collins said when it transpired that a blood test would
   shorten quarantine by a few hours.

   NASA had planned to institute the quarantine for Apollo 11, 12, 13 and
   14, then reevaluate the situation. The Apollo 13 quarantine was
   canceled after the crewmembers were forced to skip the moon landing
   maneuver. During the first couple years of studying moon rocks in
   terrestrial labs, occasional lapses in safety protocols also sent
   scientists into observation or quarantine.

   Wives and children of the Apollo 12 crew greet the returning astronauts
   in their Mobile Quarantine Facility. The crew quarantine procedures
   were used for Apollo 11, 12 and 14, then deemed unnecessary.
   Wives and children of the Apollo 12 crew greet the returning astronauts
   in their Mobile Quarantine Facility. The crew quarantine procedures
   were used for Apollo 11, 12 and 14, then deemed unnecessary. (Image
   credit: NASA)

   But after Apollo 14, NASA decided that Earth was safe from lunar bugs.
   The lunar receiving lab's sample-processing side remained active until
   a new building was constructed and the moon rocks were moved out. Then,
   the building was turned over to NASA's life sciences division, which is
   how Hayes ended up spending decades working in its labs and uncovering
   its history.

   Now, her department has moved out as well. "I was the last one to shut
   the lights out and lock the door when we moved out of the Lunar
   Receiving Lab, and now it sits empty," Hayes said.

   According to NASA spokesperson Noah Michelsohn, the building is slated
   for demolition, with a new sample-processing facility due to be built
   before the asteroid missions OSIRIS-REx and Hayabusa2 bring back new,
   precious space rocks starting late next year. Hayes said she wishes she
   had appreciated the facility more when she first joined NASA, since it
   tells such a compelling story about the Apollo program and of
   spaceflight in general.

   "It's kind of amazing, all the things they thought of and pulled
   together to do this," Hayes said. "I imagine when we go back to the
   moon, we'll have to do some similar things, not necessarily for the
   crew but handling samples and the experiments that'll be done."
     * Catch These Events Celebrating Apollo 11 Moon Landing's 50th
       Anniversary
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     * Reading Apollo 11: The Best New Books About the US Moon Landings

   Email Meghan Bartels at mbartels@space.com or follow her
   @meghanbartels. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

   Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions,
   night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment,
   let us know at: community@space.com.

   Meghan Bartels
   Meghan Bartels
     *
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   Senior Writer

   Meghan is a senior writer at Space.com and has more than five years'
   experience as a science journalist based in New York City. She joined
   Space.com in July 2018, with previous writing published in outlets
   including Newsweek and Audubon. Meghan earned an MA in science
   journalism from New York University and a BA in classics from
   Georgetown University, and in her free time she enjoys reading and
   visiting museums. Follow her on Twitter at @meghanbartels.

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