Apollo 16 capsule being prepared for its 50th anniversary party

The Apollo 16 capsule is dusty all these decades after it carried three astronauts to the moon. Cobwebs cling to the spacecraft. Business cards, a pencil, money, a spoon and even a tube of lip balm litter the floor of the giant case that protects the space antique in a museum.

The COVID-19 pandemic meant a break in the normal routine of cleaning the ship’s display at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, located near NASA’S Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. But workers are sprucing up the spacecraft for the 50th anniversary of its April 1972 flight.

Delicately using microfiber towels, extension poles, brushes, dust-catching wands and vacuums, a crew recently cleaned the 6.5-ton, nearly 11-foot-tall capsule and wiped down its glass enclosure, located beneath a massive Saturn V rocket suspended from the ceiling.

Aside from overseeing the cleaning, consulting curator Ed Stewart taught museum staff how to maintain the capsule.

Brushing dust off the side of the capsule while dressed in protective clothing, Stewart said the command module was in “pretty good shape” considering its age and how long it had been since the last cleaning about three years ago.

“I’m pleased to see that there’s not … heavy layers of dust. I’ve not seen a lot of insect debris or anything like that, so I take that as a very positive sign,” he said.

Charlie Duke, who walked on the moon with John Young while Ken Mattingly piloted the capsule, is expected to attend a celebration this spring marking the 50th anniversary of the flight’s liftoff April 16, 1972.