Some of our moon rocks are missing: Nasa admits to losing more than 500 samples of space material brought back from the Apollo missions

It was clever enough to send men to the Moon - yet Nasa has managed to lose track of many of the samples it brought back from there, it admits.

Since 1970, more than 500 pieces of moon rock, meteorites, comet chunks and other space material have been stolen or lost, an audit found.

Nasa, which has lent out more than 26,000 samples, needs to keep better track of what is sent to researchers and museums, the report by its inspector general warns, or it ‘increases the risk these unique resources may be lost’.    More Read