Quarantine According to Apollo Astronauts
On the eve of Apollo 11’s launch, the Moon remained a mysterious place. We had pictures of the surface and had landed a handful of robotic probes, but no one knew what humans might find there, or what they might bring back. There was serious concern that some virus or other contaminant might live on the surface and hitch a ride to Earth with the crew, unleashing a Moon Plague on humanity. As a proactive measure, the agency developed strict quarantine procedures. The men, the rocks, and even the hardware were isolated post-flight in an attempt to contain anything that could affect the Earth’s biome.
The Decision to Quarantine
NASA’s fear where biological contaminants were concerned was that Apollo astronauts could bring some space sickness home with them. The worst case scenario was for that sickness, a “Moon Plague” if you will, would make its way around the globe with alarming speed. It was thus the joint responsibility of NASA and the Interagency Committee on Back-Contamination (ICBC) — a group made up of representatives from the National Academy of Sciences, U.S. Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and U.S. Department of Interior among others — to make sure this didn’t happen. The joint agencies’ goals were threefold:
“1. To protect the public’s health, agriculture, and other living resources.
2…
