Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins had to fill out official US Customs and Border Protection forms upon returning to Earth from the Moon in 1969.

A closer look

Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins had to fill out official US Customs and Border Protection forms upon returning to Earth from the Moon in 1969. NASA's heroic astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and were promptly treated like tourists who might be smuggling illicit souvenirs across international lines. The form meticulously declared their flight route as starting in Cape Kennedy, stopping at the Moon, and ending in Honolulu, while their cargo was officially listed as moon rocks and moondust. It is absolutely hilarious that humanity achieved its greatest technological triumph, breaking the very bonds of Earth's gravity, only to be immediately confronted with mindless government paperwork upon return. Bureaucracy remains the single most powerful force in the universe, entirely immune to the awe of space exploration. Just imagine risking your life in a tin can a quarter of a million miles away, only to have a guy with a clipboard ask if you brought any agricultural products back