Скачать или смотреть The moment the world’s largest moon rock was collected

It’s huge — 11.7 kg (sample 61016).
The largest single rock returned from the Moon by the Apollo program, and it’s kept that title since Apollo 16 (1972).

Picked by TV, not just luck.
Ground geologists watching the rover camera saw a bright, rectangular face on the rock and told the crew “That’s it — bring that one back,” so it was a deliberate, science-driven pickup.

Named for a person, not a beast.
“Big Muley” honors Bill Muehlberger, Apollo 16’s principal geology investigator — the nickname stuck and became the rock’s informal name.

It’s a breccia — a lunar “impact sandwich.”
Big Muley is a shock-bonded rock made of smashed-together fragments (clasts) in a dark matrix — basically the Moon’s history frozen into one chunk.

It almost wasn’t taken — weight caused drama.
The crew worried about mass limits for return and even debated what to leave behind, but the rock’s scientific value won out and it made the trip home to be studied.