TIL the Apollo 11 astronauts had to go through immigration in Hawaii when they splashed down because they had left U.S. borders.

Cape Kennedy-Moon-Honolulu.

"You know you could have take a more direct route to Honolulu, right?"

Apollo 13 Jack Swigert requested a Tax Filing extension while headed to the moon:

"How do I apply for an extension?" he asked from space to those in Mission Control, who began to laugh. "Things kind of happened real fast down there and I need an extension. I'm really serious."

Flight director Glynn Lunney later reassured the astronaut: American citizens who were out of the country received a 60-day filing extension. "I assume this applies," he told the astronaut, who was already far from the planet at that time.

[source]

A channel 5 watcher, I see

Flight No.: APOLLO 11

So fucking badass.

I love the "to be determined" if there is anything on board that can cause a health hazard (they did quarantine astronauts when they first came back from the moon)

I like how unnecessarily bureaucratic this is in terms of immigration.

A friend-of-a-friend of mine took part in an international swimming event which involved swimming from one country to another, with a boat keeping pace in case anyone got in trouble.

He was swimming back to his home country, so he never bothered to get his passport stamped or anything, he just went home. The next time he interacted with passport control they got mad at him because his passport still showed him in the origin country of the swimming. He basically took the attitude "bro it's not a big deal, relax, I'm here now, just stamp me" and they gave him a whole bunch of grief and then just adjusted his paperwork and sent him on his way, because what else can you do.

Then for the next year's event he did it AGAIN, and the second time the passport people discovered the issue they were even more angry, and he still just kind of took the attitude "bro you don't run me, I'm not malicious and IDGAF about your system, just stamp me and let me go to Italy or whatever."

Things you can do when you're the correct ethnicity for $100

As unnecessary as this seems, you never know:

They could be illegal aliens...

We're gonna have to make the Moon's name more specific if we ever survive long enough to colonize other planets. It's like if Earth's name were Planet.

There's also scans of their "travel re-imbursements" which has "Moon" as the destination

Admit it. The reason for the "to be determined" was the lunar flying squid they found in his luggage.

MOON

Neil Armstrong sure has a cool autograph

I have this image of astronauts in their suits standing in line at an airport now.

So I guess this is the US government admitting we don't own the moon 🙁

Gotta make sure they weren't smuggling any illegal aliens.

They (well, Buzz Aldrin, at least) also filled out a travel expense voucher to get reimbursed for driving his personal car, including from his home to the air force base from which he flew to Florida, as well as around Cape Kennedy, during his "official travel."

His official itinerary is more detailed than the one provided on the customs form (all dates are, of course, in July of 1969):

7-7 | LV: Residence | 0445 | POV (note: POV means "Privately Owned Vehicle." Aldrin reported 8 miles for this leg of the journey and was reimbursed 56¢.)

7-7 | AR: EAFB | 0500 (note: EAFB is "Ellington Air Force Base" in Houston)

7-7 | LV: EAFB | 0530 | Gov. Air

7-7 | AR: Cape Kennedy, Fla. | 0800

7-16 | LV: Cape Kennedy, Fla. | 0832 | Gov. Spacecraft (note: Saturn V serial number SA-506, of course)

7-19 | AR: Moon | 1325

7-21 | LV: Moon | 2400 | Gov. Spacecraft (note: transfer from NASA LM-5 Eagle to NASA CSM-107 Columbia not listed)

7-24 | AR: Pacific Ocean | 0600 (note: at 13°19′N 169°9′W in the North Pacific, about 920 miles or 1480 km from Honolulu)

7-24 | LV: Pacific Ocean | 0800 | USN Hornett (note: Aldrin misspelled the name of the US navy aircraft carrier Hornet here.)

7-26 | AR: Hawaii | 0900 (note: Pearl Harbor, to be specific)

7-26 | LV: Hawaii | 1200 | USAF Plane (note: the particular plane was a C-141B Starlifter designated 66-7958 USAF, which I cannot find a name for.)

7-27 | AR: EAFB | 0100

7-27 | LV: EAFB | 0215 | Gov. Veh. (note: the Gov. Veh. in question was the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF), a converted Airstream trailer. They would stay in the MQF for three weeks. Actually, they boarded the MQF on the Hornet ; it was then loaded into 66-7958 in Hawaii and unloaded in Houston.)

7-27 | AR: LRL | 0300 (note: LRL is the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, building 37 at Johnson Space Center in Houston.)

A notation beneath this itinerary reads "Government meals and quarters furnished for all the above dates."

Aldrin also reported 100 miles of "official vicinity travel" at Cape Kennedy for the nine days between his arrival and departure, for which he was reimbursed $10. Another note reads "POV authorized for official vicinity travel at Cape Kennedy, Fla. in leiu (sic) of rental car." I can't find any information about what POV this is; he left his personal vehicle in Houston when he flew on a government plane to Florida, so perhaps he owned two cars?

There are three handwritten notes beneath that which I cannot read but claim $8.00 and $19.25, as well as $4.50 of charges that he subtracts from the total; these three are listed in the "subsistence" column. The grand total claimed on this voucher are $33.31 ($279.17 in 2024 dollars), and it was approved by someone named "C.W. Bird."

That customsb official was 100% grinning like crazy when he typed "moon"

Illegal aliens have always been a concern.

It sounds like a harmless prank on the astronauts that everyone pretended to take really seriously.

At least I hope the astronauts didn't know beforehand, and I hope they got a kick out of it.

This is my favorite thing on the Internet so far today! Thanks for sharing!

There also is a special exemption for US Customs to use for items returned from outer space. General Note 3(e) of the HTSUS exempts the items from having to have an entry filed or duties paid for those items as well as corpses and telecommunications.

Wouldn't Michael Collins need a different form? His would need to say moon orbit not moon. I would expect bureaucrats to care about that.

I just watched Life last night, and you know, this seems sensible.

e: link

Americans are funny as fuck! 😂

Someone watched Channel 5's latest video...