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Person

Interagency Committee on Back Contamination

The body that held the authority to quarantine Apollo crews, spacecraft and lunar samples — and, later, the authority to stop.

  • Revision: 1
  • Dates: 1966-01-01 to 1971-01-01 (year precision)
  • Last reviewed: 2026-08-14
  • Status: Wound down after crew quarantine was discontinued
  • Also known as ICBC

Orientation

Role: Policy-making board on lunar quarantine and back contamination

Operator or programme: NASA with the US Public Health Service, Department of Agriculture and academia

Geography: United States

Chronology

  1. year precisionInteragency Committee on Back Contamination enters the record.

Related records

  • compared with

    Who decides that a risk has been retired — an agency, or someone outside it?

    Confidence: high · 1979-12-24 (day precision)

  • explained by

    Who held the authority to declare the Moon safe?

    Confidence: high · 1969-08-10 (day precision)

  • relates to

    Both are about who is allowed to approve an approach.

    Confidence: high · 2009-01-01 (year precision)

Inspect the record1 assertion, each with its source

  • Established in 1966, the committee was the policy-making board on quarantine, comprising NASA, the US Public Health Service, the Department of Agriculture and academia, and it designated the official able to impose quarantine on crew, spacecraft and returned lunar material.

    Source class: space agency historyNASA SP-4214 — Complexities of QuarantineView the source

CorrectionsNone recorded

No corrections recordedThis record has not been corrected since it was published.