The first men on the Moon had to clear customs

On 24 July 1969, the Apollo 11 capsule splashed down in the Pacific and the three most famous astronauts on the planet were flown to Honolulu. Waiting for them there, among other things, was the most earthbound of formalities: the customs and immigration form.

The document exists, it is signed by Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, and it has been preserved. Declared route: departure from Cape Kennedy with a "stopover" on the Moon. Cargo on board: "moon rock and moon dust samples". And in the box about any condition on board that might spread disease, the most unsettling answer an official form has ever given: "to be determined".

It wasn't pure bureaucratic humour. In 1969 nobody could swear the Moon was free of microbes, so the three men spent three weeks in quarantine, looking at their families through glass. NASA didn't drop the custom until after Apollo 14.

The paper's accidental moral remains: you can leave the planet, walk on another world and come back a legend. Customs will be waiting all the same.