Apollo 11 astronaut and second man on the moon Buzz Aldrin posted a photo on Twitter of his "customs form" allowing him entry to the United States after walking on the surface of the moon in 1969. The tweet was sent on Sunday.
The form, which looks like any normal declaration form someone might need to fill out when returning from a trip abroad, has "moon rocks and moon dust samples" filled in as cargo transported back from the first crewed mission to the lunar surface. But unfortunately, according to space historians, the humorous customs form just isn't real.
"It is most likely that it [the customs form] was created by the Customs Service's District Director for Hawaii, and the astronaut signatures were auto-penned onto it sometime later in the summer of 1969 at NASA Headquarters," NASA's History Office posted on Facebook in August 2014.
Yes the #Apollo11 crew also signed customs forms. We brought back moon rocks & moon dust samples. Moon disease TBD. pic.twitter.com/r9Sn57DeoW— Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) August 2, 2015
The form looks like it was signed by all three Apollo 11 astronauts: Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins.
The three astronauts launched on their mission to the moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida on July 16, 1969, returning to Earth eight days later after walking on the moon on July 20. The customs form shows the crew's flight number as "Apollo 11" with their departure pointed listed as "moon."
Today's astronauts returning from the International Space Station (ISS) don't even need to fill out customs forms to come back into the United States, even though they land in Kazakhstan, according to NASA spokesman Rob Navias.
My government travel has been approved! The destination sounds wonderful this time of year. pic.twitter.com/mxnROMUkTX— Reid Wiseman (@astro_reid) April 8, 2014
"When the crews land in Kazakhstan their support teams have their official passports but no customs forms are required," Navias told Mashable via email.
NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman, who recently returned from a stay onboard the Space Station shared his approved government travel document for his trip to the ISS in 2014.
#TBT My mission director @Buzzs_xtina's favorite piece of my memorabilia. My travel voucher to the moon. #Apollo11 pic.twitter.com/c89UyOfvgY— Buzz Aldrin (@TheRealBuzz) July 30, 2015
Aldrin also posted another fun form -- a travel voucher that was legitimately used -- from the Apollo era. The travel voucher includes an expense report requesting $33.31 for expenses incurred during Aldrin's moonshot.
That amount in 1969 would equal about $216.59 today, when adjusted for inflation according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.