Priceless Lunar Rover Model Saved From Scrap

Last week there was a story in the news about a prototype lunar rover that was inexplicably sold by somebody in Alabama to a scrap yard and apparently destroyed. Yup, a one-of-a-kind 600 pound NASA model of the moon rover that we all remember bounced around over the surface of the moon during the Apollo missions of the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Apparently some retard at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville picked the thing up and sold it to a scrap yard dealer. When word got out last week, there was a massive outpouring of disbelief, but what was done, was done ... at least as far as everybody thought.

But wait! It turns out that the heroic scrap dealer recognized what the thing was and saved the buggy after all. From his picture above, the rover matches the description given by NASA in its investigatory documents. The prototype rover appears to be the same one that is in the smaller insert above being driven by none other than Saturn V rocket scientist Dr. Wernher von Braun.

According to Motherboard magazine, the scrap dealer says, "The man who originally bought it ... bought it at a NASA auction many years ago. NASA just discarded a lot of that stuff back then. When it was brought to my scrap facility, I set it aside because I knew what it was. The unit does exist today. It is not scrapped. I have that unit in storage."

The junkyard owner told Motherboard that he had been planning to sell the rover before Motherboard published its story on Tuesday. He says he still plans to sell the rover. Anyone interested?