What it takes to clean an Apollo spacecraft
It’s been 50 years after the Apollo 16 spaceship lovingly called Casper landed on the moon, so of course it was due for a little cleaning. Displayed for decades at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, the command module capsule had gathered dust and cobwebs, as well as a few objects left behind by visitors before the spacecraft was encased in glass for preservation.
To celebrate the anniversary of its April 1972 flight, the 6.5-ton, nearly 11-foot-tall capsule was cleaned using specialized microfiber brushes and vacuum cleaners. The cleaners, however, carefully preserved traces of history, such as the visible fingerprints and handprints that the original astronauts left behind.
