In the US, workers clean Apollo 16 spaceship ahead of 50th anniversary

The Apollo 16 spacecraft that carried astronauts Charlie Duke, Ken Mattingly and John Young to the moon is being spruced up ahead of the 50th anniversary of its 1972 flight. Photo: AP

The Apollo 16 capsule is dusty all these decades after it carried three astronauts to the moon. Cobwebs cling to the spacecraft. Business cards, a pencil, money, a spoon and even a tube of lip balm litter the floor of the giant case that protects the space antique in a museum.

The Covid-19 pandemic meant a break in the normal routine of cleaning the ship's display at the US Space and Rocket Center, located near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. But workers are sprucing up the spacecraft for the 50th anniversary of its April 1972 flight.