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[[File:Lunar Receiving Laboratory.jpg|thumb|The Lunar Receiving Laboratory shortly after it was built.]]
[[File:The first Apollo 11 sample return container is unloaded.jpg|thumb|First samples from the Moon being delivered to LRL in 1969]]

The '''Lunar Receiving Laboratory''' ('''LRL''') was a facility at [[NASA]]'s [[Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center]] (Building 37) that was constructed to [[quarantine]] [[astronauts]] and material brought back from the [[Moon]] during the [[Apollo program]] to reduce the risk of [[back-contamination]]. After recovery at sea, crews from [[Apollo 11]], [[Apollo 12]], and  [[Apollo 14]] walked from their [[helicopter]] to the [[Mobile Quarantine Facility]] on the deck of an [[aircraft carrier]] and were brought to the LRL for quarantine. Samples of rock and [[regolith]] that the astronauts collected and brought back were flown directly to the LRL and initially analyzed in [[glovebox]] [[vacuum chamber]]s.

:::[[File:NASA-Houston LRL-installation.png]]

The quarantine requirement was dropped for [[Apollo 15]] and later missions.<ref>{{cite web|title=Moon Rocks and Moon Germs. A History of NASA's Lunar Receiving Laboratory|author=Kent Carter |date=2001|url=https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2001/winter/nasa-lunar-lab|quote=All crew quarantine requirements were waived after the flight of Apollo 14.|publisher=National Archives|access-date=March 26, 2023}}</ref> The LRL was used for study, distribution, and safe storage of the lunar samples. Between 1969 and 1972, six Apollo space flight missions brought back 382 kilograms (842 pounds) of lunar rocks, core samples, pebbles, sand, and dust from the lunar surface—in all, 2,200 samples from six exploration sites.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lunar Rocks and Soils from Apollo Missions|date=March 31, 2022|url=https://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/|publisher=NASA|access-date=March 26, 2023}}</ref> Other lunar samples were returned to Earth by three automated Soviet spacecraft, [[Luna 16]] in 1970, [[Luna 20]] in 1972, and [[Luna 24]] in 1976, which returned samples totaling 300&nbsp;grams (about 3/4 pound).{{clarify|date=May 2025|reason=Why is this sentence here? Did this lab analyze any of the Soviet lunar samples? If so, please include citations.}}

In 1976, some of the samples were moved to [[Brooks Air Force Base]] in [[San Antonio, Texas]], for second-site storage. In 1979, a [[Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility]] was built to serve as the chief repository for the Apollo samples: permanent storage in a physically secure and non-contaminating environment. The facility includes vaults for the samples and records, and laboratories for sample preparation and study.<ref>{{cite web|title=Lunar Sample Laboratory Tour|date=May 31, 2022|url=https://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/laboratory_tour.cfm|publisher=NASA|access-date=March 26, 2023}}</ref> The Lunar Receiving Laboratory building was later occupied by NASA's Life Sciences division, contained biomedical and environment labs, and was used for experiments involving human adaptation to [[microgravity]].<ref>{{cite web|date=October 13, 2021|title=Building on a Mission: The Lunar Receiving Laboratory|url=https://www.nasa.gov/feature/building-on-a-mission-the-lunar-receiving-laboratory
|publisher=NASA|access-date=March 26, 2023}}</ref>

In September 2019, NASA announced that the Lunar Receiving Laboratory had not been used for two years and would be demolished.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Stuckey |first=Alex |date=2019-09-20 |title=NASA to tear down building where Neil Armstrong, colleagues were quarantined after moon mission |url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/NASA-to-tear-down-building-where-Neil-Armstrong-14461724.php |access-date=2023-01-05 |website=Houston Chronicle |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2019-09-25 |title=NASA says 1969 moon landing lab to be demolished next year - The Washington Post |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasa-says-1969-moon-landing-lab-to-be-demolished-next-year/2019/09/24/3f71928a-defe-11e9-be7f-4cc85017c36f_story.html |access-date=2023-01-05 |archive-date=2019-09-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190925132748/https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasa-says-1969-moon-landing-lab-to-be-demolished-next-year/2019/09/24/3f71928a-defe-11e9-be7f-4cc85017c36f_story.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{clarify|date=May 2025|reason=It is now 2025. Does Building 37 still stands? If so, what is it being used for? If not, what has replaced it? Is the location currently being used as a parking lot?}}

== See also ==
{{Portal|Texas}}
* [[Moon rock]]
* [[Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility]]

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041015082653/http://ston.jsc.nasa.gov/collections/TRS/listfiles.cgi?DOC=CR-2004-208938 Lunar Receiving Laboratory Project History] NASA/CR–2004–208938, 2004
* [http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/lnews/lnjul94/hist25.htm 25 Years of Curating Moon Rocks], Judy Allton
* [https://history.nasa.gov/afj/lrl/apollo-quarantine.html Apollo Lunar Quarantine]

{{NASA centers}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2014}}

[[Category:Apollo program]]
[[Category:Astrobiology]]
[[Category:Johnson Space Center]]