Technology
When Apollo 11 splashed down in the Pacific in 1969, the recovered astronauts were sealed in a quarantine trailer for weeks because nobody could rule out lunar microbes, while around their capsule the ocean teemed with creatures far stranger than anything feared from the Moon
In July 1969, Apollo 11's crew was sealed in an Airstream trailer for 21 days while NASA tested moon rocks for life that wasn't there — meanwhile, the ocean beneath their splashdown site held vampire squid, 40-meter siphonophores, and single-celled organisms the size of dinner plates.
By Silicon Canals Editorial Team · Jun 11, 2026