Apollo astronauts can keep mementos from space under new law

President Obama signed a law Tuesday that lets Apollo-era astronauts keep the mementos from their space missions.

The law stems from an incident involving Apollo 13 commander Jim Lovell.

Last year Lovell sold a checklist from the mission through an auction house for $388,000. The checklist had Lovell's calculations for getting the damaged orbiter back to Earth.

NASA, however, questioned whether Lovell ever really owned the checklist, forcing the auction to be suspended. Then NASA asked for the checklist back.

During the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo program, NASA allowed astronauts to keep mementos, pieces of hardware and personal equipment from the mission. In the last few years though, NASA has begun challenging whether the astronauts own the items.

The US House and US Senate unanimously approved the bill earlier this month.

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