I love that ‘moon’ is written under ‘place.’
There also is a special exemption for US Customs to use for items returned from outer space. General Note 3(e) of the HTSUS exempts the items from having to have an entry filed or duties paid for those items as well as corpses and telecommunications.
Apollo 13 Jack Swigert requested a Tax Filing extension while headed to the moon:
“How do I apply for an extension?” he asked from space to those in Mission Control, who began to laugh. “Things kind of happened real fast down there and I need an extension. I’m really serious.”
Flight director Glynn Lunney later reassured the astronaut: American citizens who were out of the country received a 60-day filing extension. “I assume this applies,” he told the astronaut, who was already far from the planet at that time.
[source]
I love how this was added to the Apollo 13 movie. As they’re floating about feeling cold and miserable Swigert gets told he has been granted an extension as he is “definitely out of the country”.
See I would have just assumed this was an incredible line added by some hilarious writer. The fact that it’s true is just chefs kiss perfect
Such a good movie
After Apollo 13’s safe return, Grumman Aerospace sent North American Aviation an invoice for “Towing fees” as the lunar module was the active ship during much of the outbound and all of the inbound leg of the mission.
That customsb official was 100% grinning like crazy when he typed “moon”
Admit it. The reason for the “to be determined” was the lunar flying squid they found in his luggage.
You leave my father out of this!
MOON
So, like, Moon Pennsylvania?
Yeah, they were visiting Keith Moon there.
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Neil Armstrong sure has a cool autograph
Agreed. I can’t imagine how he came upon that method of making a capital “A”.
All three of those men are superior to me just based on how well they sign their own names versus my shitty grade school-level cursive scribble.
Cape Kennedy-Moon-Honolulu.
“You know you could have take a more direct route to Honolulu, right?”
See this is what life was like before Google maps. You never knew which route was the fastest
Right before gmaps, you had mapquest. You had to print out your route on paper. Read while driving, and if there was any deviance in the route like construstion, fuck you.
Highway signage was critical. If you were traveling, you could tell which states sucked by them not having any signs pointing you back to the highway.
you could tell which states sucked by them not having any signs pointing you back to the highway.
“Oh no you don’t! We’re not showing you how to get out of here! You’re part of OUR tax base now!”
Back then, everything was done through a travel agent and they often got kickbacks if you took certain routes. No doubt some agents got a bonus for routing them so circuitously.
Up voting for word usage.
“We took the scenic route.”
This is my favorite thing on the Internet so far today! Thanks for sharing!
So I guess this is the US government admitting we don’t own the moon 🙁
I’m more interested in where the “border” is in this case. At what altitude are you no longer considered to be in US airspace?
There’s not really any definite border. FAA controlled airspace generally ends at flight level 600 (around 60,000 feet, although flight levels are defined by air pressure not distance from the ground, so the actual altitude can vary). Above that will be uncontrolled airspace, though that doesn’t necessarily mean the US won’t claim sovereignty there.
The Outer Space treaty, generally considered the first step in establishing space law, stipulates that “outer space” is for the benefit of all mankind and not subject to sovereignty claims by any country. However there isn’t a legal definition of where outer space begins. The Karman line (100km) is a common practical definition. However the US has flown spacecraft (notably the shuttle) below 80km above Canada, without asking for permission first.
Practically speaking, there are as yet not enough craft flying at these kinds of altitudes for real legislation to be necessary. The spacefaring countries mostly work it out between them on a case by case basis.
I just want to see the news report about Canada shooting down an unidentified craft at 80km.
That’s already the case due to a treaty.
Treaties are made to be broken.
I love the “to be determined” if there is anything on board that can cause a health hazard (they did quarantine astronauts when they first came back from the moon)
The quarantine turned out to be needless, but I understand why they did it. You have to prove landing on the moon is not a biological threat and that’s pretty much the only way to do it.
Illegal aliens have always been a concern.
Wouldn’t Michael Collins need a different form? His would need to say moon orbit not moon. I would expect bureaucrats to care about that.
He was in lunar “territorial waters,” so to speak, so it probably counts.
Gotta make sure they weren’t smuggling any illegal aliens.
Not sure if this is what inspired OP, but I just learned the fact about astronauts going through customs yesterday, in a video posted by Channel 5 on YouTube. The context was that Andrew Callahan, who is a US citizen, tried crossing the Rio Grande with Coyotes for journalistic reasons, and he learned the hard way that there are NO exceptions to the rule requiring entering through customs. Not for journalists, and not for astronauts.
A channel 5 watcher, I see
Nope, someone showed me elsewhere.
A channel 5 watcher watcher, I see
Does that make the rest of us Channel 5 watcher watcher watchers (mushroom mushroom) or is that only if we stare at Flying Squid a lot?
TIL Andrew has never seen The Matrix
Or took “no” as an answer from a woman.
How good is/was that series, this must the the riskiest thing he’s done though. But the level of journalism is something we rarely see these days.
That’s-a-me!
Love channel 5 news. Andrew is great at what he does.
I have this image of astronauts in their suits standing in line at an airport now.
“So, where did you come from?” “Ummm… The Moon?!”
Yeah that will be a random screening
