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Shuttle Challenger debris seller convicted
August 23, 2000 — Charles Starowesky of Somerset, Ohio pled guilty Tuesday in a U.S. District Court after attempting to sell a small piece of the wreckage from the Space Shuttle Challenger.
As first reported by collectSPACE, Starowesky posted the 6 by 6 by 2.5" thermal tile on October 28, 1999 to the auction website eBay. In his lot description, Starowesky explained he had "pulled [the fragment] from the water of the Atlantic Ocean" as a member of the first U.S. Coast Guard team to respond to the explosion. He described it as the "ultimate Christmas gift for the space enthusiast."
After four days of accepting bids to the tune of $331 and receiving national attention, eBay closed the auction at the request of NASA. The space agency then launched an inquiry through their Office of Criminal Investigations.
Soon after the auction closed, Starowesky — who only identified himself as "Chuck" at the time — replied to media inquiries claiming ignorance of the law. An e-mail to the space news website SpaceViews read: "I had no idea it was illegal to posses or sell this item, and would gladly return [it] to proper authorities."
Almost 10 months later, Starowesky stood before Judge John D. Holshuh facing one count of possession of U.S. Government property, with the intent to convert it to his own use. Pleading guilty to violating Title 18, Section 641 of the U.S. Code, Theft of Government Property, he was sentenced to two years probation.
According to NASA's Office of the Inspector General "at the time of the Challenger Space Shuttle recovery effort, all of the [debris] was to be retrieved and returned to a NASA hanger for use in reconstructing the Challenger." After the cause of the explosion was determined, the recovered debris was interred in two abandoned missile silos at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. |
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