On July 21, 1969, the Apollo 11 quarantine began.

As shown in the video above, it was an unusual process for an unprecedented task: keeping potential moon germs from entering the Earths atmosphere (and affecting its population).

To isolate the Apollo astronauts from Earth, NASA went to extraordinary lengths, clothing them in biological isolation garments, transporting them on a converted Airstream trailer, and quarantining them for weeks in a Lunar Receiving Lab built specially for analyzing moon samples and, of course, for holding the men who went there.

The quarantine was a strange capstone to the journey to the moon but a necessary one thats surprisingly resonant today.

Watch the conversation above to learn more.

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Why NASA quarantined the Apollo 11 astronauts - Vox.com