NASA intern stole $21M of Lunar to use during sex…
He promised her the Moon — and meant it.
More than 23 years in the past, NASA intern Thad Roberts hatched a daring plan to steal 17 kilos of moon rocks and a meteorite from Houston’s Johnson Space Center — priceless samples from every Apollo mission, locked in a 600-pound protected and valued at $21 million, according to the FBI.
Only 24 years previous with a triple major in physics, geology, and geophysics at the University of Utah, with a spouse he was supporting back in Utah, and financially struggling, Roberts thought his plan was foolproof.
Thad Roberts orchestrated a daring theft from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, stealing a protected containing lunar samples.
The first step was discovering a purchaser. With help from good friend Gordon McWhorter, Roberts related online with a potential Belgian purchaser keen to pay $1,000 to $5,000 per gram.
The purchaser, however, grew suspicious and alerted the FBI, who instructed him to keep speaking while they investigated.
Around this time, he met Tiffany Fowler, a 22-year-old NASA intern conducting stem cell research.
Their friendship rapidly grew to become romantic, and after three weeks, they moved in together. When Roberts revealed his plan, Fowler agreed to help.
They recruited another NASA intern, Shae Saur, and one evening the trio used their NASA IDs to slip into the Johnson Space Center, making off with your complete protected.
Lunar gloveboxes are seen in the Lunar Lab where moon rocks are examined, during a media day hosted by NASA to preview the OSIRIS-REx Sample Lab at Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, on July 24, 2023. AFP via Getty Images
Back at the resort, they cracked it open with a energy noticed.
On July 20, 2002—the thirty third anniversary of the first moon touchdown—Roberts and Fowler drove to Orlando to meet relations of the Belgian purchaser.
While ready, Roberts positioned moon rocks beneath the mattress covers, later claiming the couple had “sex on the moon” as a symbolic gesture.
“I take some of the moon rocks and I put them underneath the blanket on the bed… I never said anything but I’m sure she could feel it,” he told CBS News in 2012.
The lunar samples had been valued at up to $21 million. AFP via Getty Images
“It was more about the symbol of what we were doing, basically having sex on the moon. It’s more uncomfortable than not, but it wasn’t about the comfort at that point. It was about the expression. And no one had ever had sex on the moon before. I think we can safely say that.”
When they met with the supposed patrons, they had been instead greeted by undercover FBI brokers. The moon rocks had been recovered from their resort room, though the FBI reported they had been now “virtually useless to the scientific community” and that the heist destroyed three many years of handwritten research notes by a NASA scientist.
After his arrest, Roberts admitted to also stealing dinosaur bones and fossils from the Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City.
Roberts was sentenced to eight years in federal prison, serving only six. MediaNews Group via Getty Images
When requested why he stole the moon rocks, Robert told CBS News he “wasn’t” wanting at it like stealing at the time.
“We weren’t going to take this money we were getting from it to go buy a yacht or lots of cars or a big house. We were gonna live just the small kind of lifestyle we were, but fund science that might change the world, you know?” he said.
In the end, Roberts, Fowler, and Saur all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit theft and interstate transportation of stolen property.
Roberts was sentenced to eight years in federal prison, serving six. Fowler and Saur each acquired 180 days of home arrest and 150 hours of neighborhood service.
McWhorter, convicted at trial, was given six years in prison.
Roberts and Fowler never noticed each other again.
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