President Joe Biden has yet to reveal much about his space policy priorities, but space fans can have the heart that space is in his mind, thanks to an Apollo Moon rock that now decorates the space. ‘Oval Office.
Why it’s important: The Rock of the Moon, ceded to the White House by NASA, is shown “in symbolic recognition of the ambitions and achievements of previous generations, and support for the current approach of exploring the Moon to Mars from United States, “according to a NASA statement.
Background: The Rock of the Moon was picked up in 1972 by Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan of Apollo 17, who “took this sample out of a large boulder” while they were about 3 miles from their lunar module, according to NASA.
- The rock, which is about 3.9 billion years old, weighs just under a pound.
- “The irregular surfaces of the sample contain small craters created as micrometeorite impacts have ravaged the rock for millions of years,” NASA said in the statement. “The flat, serrated sides were created in NASA’s lunar healing lab when slices were cut for scientific research.”
The big picture: This rock is the second sample of the Moon ceded to NASA’s White House to show long-term, according to Robert Pearlman, a space historian and editor of Collectspace.com.
- In 1999, NASA lent the White House an Apollo 11 lunar rock in honor of the 30th anniversary of the landing when Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Buzz Aldrin visited then-President Bill Clinton in the oval office.
- “The rock, at Clinton’s request, remained exposed in the room until he left office in January 2001,” Pearlman wrote.