Minn. Guard To Hand Over Apollo 11 Moon Rocks

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) -- Minnesota is preserving a handful of historically significant rock fragments collected by astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the first moon landing.

The Minnesota National Guard is handing over the moon rocks after finding them in storage in a government building in St. Paul. They will go to the Minnesota Historical Society in a ceremony on Wednesday.

The hand-off takes place at an event with students at STARBASE Minnesota, a math and science program.

The moon rocks came from the Apollo 11 lunar mission in 1969, when Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon. Minnesota's moon rocks disappeared sometime after then-President Richard Nixon gave them to the state, along with a state flag carried on the mission.

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