TULSA, Okla. (AP) — A Texas state agency has withdrawn its ownership claim to 10 microfilm Bibles that Apollo astronauts took into space, ceding them to an author who says they were left to her by a NASA chaplain who helped send the tiny books into the heavens, court records show.

The Texas Department of Aging and Disability Services dropped its claim to the so-called first lunar Bibles last week, ahead of a Wednesday hearing that would have decided who got to keep the valuable books. Judge Linda G. Morrissey ordered the artifacts turned over to Tulsa author and businesswoman Carol Mersch in a...