Four accused of stealing Nasa moon rocks

Three student workers and another man have been charged with stealing a safe full of moon rocks and meteorites.

The FBI alleges they took them from Nasa's Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas, and tried to sell them.

The items offered for sale by the suspects were kept in a safe containing lunar samples from every Apollo mission.

Undercover FBI agents arrested Thad Roberts, 25, Tiffany Fowler, 22, and Gordon McWorter, 26, in Orlando, Florida.

They are charged with conspiracy to commit the theft of government property and transportation in interstate commerce of stolen property.

Shae Saur, 19, was arrested in Houston, and charged with conspiracy, FBI officials say.

Roberts, Fowler, and Saur have been fired from the space centre.

Undercover agents received an e-mail tip in May and started communicating with a person offering "priceless moon rocks" collected by Apollo astronauts in 1969 and the early 1970s, FBI agent James Jarboe said.

The ad was placed on May 9 on the website of the Mineralogy Club of Antwerp, Belgium, according to the federal court in Tampa, Florida.