26.8 days old
8.2 percent lit
The bibles were presented to the USA government to take on a space mission. I don't think that is proper, each astronaut was welcome to take their person bible, but, to simply send the books into space was irresponsible. But they belong to the USA government, just that simple.
April 22, 2017
Tulsa, Okla. – Ten microfilm Bibles (click here) once launched hundreds of thousands of miles into space sit landlocked today inside an Oklahoma courthouse while a legal battle rages in two states over who is the rightful owner of the celestial keepsakes.
Eight of the 10 tiny holy books in dispute landed on the surface of the moon during NASA's 1971 Apollo 14 mission, carried in a pouch by astronaut Edgar Mitchell. Each isn't much larger than a postage stamp and contains all 1,245 pages of the King James Bible. Etched onto each strip of film at such a small size, its words must be viewed through a microscope, save for two: "HOLY BIBLE" at the very top of the slide.
Shooting the scriptures into the heavens was the brainchild of the Apollo Prayer League, formed in the late 1960s to pray for the success of the space program. A novel idea at the time, flying a Bible into space led to the trend of sending other souvenirs spaceward: pocket change, LEGO figurines, and even a lightsaber wielded by the "Star Wars" movies' Luke Skywalker.
An ongoing slog in Texas and Oklahoma courts encapsulates the complexity of what to do with space relics: Connecting with the cosmos seems cool, but figuring out what to do with them can get costly and contentious back on Earth....
