WICHITA, Kan. (AP) – A federal judge in Kansas has ruled that a bag used to collect lunar samples during the first manned mission to the moon legally belongs to an Illinois woman who bought it for $995 when it was mistakenly sold during a government auction.

The  bag carried to the moon aboard the Apollo 11 spacecraft and used for the first sample of lunar material was  at the center of a legal fight after the government mistakenly sold it during the criminal case against Max Ary, the former director of the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center.

The bag was flown on Apollo 11 in June 1969 and has lunar material embedded in its fabric.

The government this week asked a federal judge to rescind its sale. It contends that as result of miss identification the National Aeronautics and Space Administration- which loaned it to the Cosmosphere – was not properly notified. But Judge J. Thomas Marten says in his Wednesday ruling that he doesn’t have the authority to reverse the sale of the space artifact.

Ary was convicted in 2005 for stealing and selling museum artifacts. He served three years in federal prison. The bag was found in his garage during execution of a search warrant.