NASA Opens Sample Taken From the Moon 50 Years On

A sample of moon rock collected during the Apollo 17 mission is opened by NASA 50 years on. Robert MARKOWITZ NASA/AFP

The Apollo missions to the Moon brought a total of 2,196 rock samples to Earth. But NASA has only just started opening one of the last ones, collected 50 years ago.

For all that time, some tubes were kept sealed so that they could be studied years later, with the help of the latest technical breakthroughs, AFP said.