Page "Apollo 16" Paragraph 48

In 2006, shortly after Hurricane Ernesto affected Bath, North Carolina, eleven year-old Kevin Schanze discovered a piece of metal debris on the ground near his beach home.

Schanze and a friend discovered a " stamp " on the flat metal sheet, which upon further inspection turned out to be a faded copy of the Apollo 16 mission insignia.

NASA later confirmed the object to be a piece of the first stage of the Saturn V rocket that launched Apollo 16 into space.

In July 2011, after returning the piece of debris at NASA's request, the sixteen-year-old Schanze was given an all-access tour of the Kennedy Space Center as well as VIP seating for the launch of STS-135, the final mission of the Space Shuttle program.