+ 1970 News Releases (7.6 Mb PDF file) - NASA

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I',,_,TIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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483-5111 MSC 70-58
May 22_ 19TO
HOUSTON_ TEXAS--A NASA scientist today reported a microorganism
thought to have been accidently deposited in the Surveyor III TV
camera prior to its launch to the Moon three years ago_ was recovered
from inside the camera when it was returned to Earth by the Apollo 12
crew in November 1969.
Frederick J. Mitchell, a _icrobiologist in NASA's Lunar Receiving
Laboratory at the Manned Spacecraft Center_ Houston_ Texas said the
microorganism - Streptococcus mitis - apparently survived the launch,
the three-day Moon-bound journey in the vacuum of space_ and 950 days
in the hostile lunar environment. The organism was found following
extensive laboratory testing of the camera parts in Houston.
Mitchell_ a USAF Captain on assignment to the Medical Research
and Operations Directorate at MSC, is project officer for the team of
microbiologists who took part in the nearly five-month study of the
retrieved camera and a Surveyor III backup caraera. Others in the
group are: Walter L. Ellis_ Microbiology Laboratory Supervisor for
Brown and Root/Northrup (NASA LRL support contractor) and Dr. Martin
D. Knittel of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
Streptococcus mitis is a common respiratory organism. This
organism does not ordinarily produce disease in man and the retrieved
organism produced no disease on animal innoeulation.
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