New Scientist reports on one space-happy eBay seller who’s got some explaining to do:
In a recent report, NASA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) described how in July, it confiscated an RL-10 [the engine for the Apollo-era Saturn-I rocket] from a man who had put the engine up for sale on an internet auction site.
The agency sometimes sells surplus space hardware to the public, but it seems this engine left NASA without permission. The person trying to sell the engine told investigators he bought it from someone, who in turn got it from a NASA employee, says the report, which does not describe how the NASA employee acquired it. The engine is worth about $200,000.
Rocket engines are supposed to be under particularly tight control at NASA: the US is keen to avoid its rocket technology winding up in the hands of countries with which it has a tense relationship, such as China.