Trump sends moon rock back to NASA that had been displayed in White House since 2021
Since President Donald Trump took office in January, the moon rock collected during the iconic Apollo missions has been noticeably absent from the Oval Office.
A moon rock signifying NASA's lunar ambitions had adorned Joe Biden's Oval Office throughout his entire presidential administration.
But, since President Donald Trump took office in January, the moon rock collected during the iconic Apollo missions has been noticeably absent. Recent photos of Trump at his desk show that the moon rock has been removed from the shelf to his left where it had been displayed for the previous four years.
Of course, incoming presidents are sure to redecorate the White House to suit their tastes. In this case, it appears Trump no longer prefers for the moon rock loaned to the Biden administration to be a fixture of his Oval Office.
Instead, the lunar sample is due to be returned this month to NASA headquarters, a NASA spokeswoman confirmed Friday to Paste BN.
The U.S. space agency has long had its sights set on sending Americans back to the moon before the decade is out, but Trump has seemed more preoccupied with planting the stars and stripes elsewhere – Mars, to be exact.
Moon rock had been in Oval Office since 2021
At the request of the Biden administration, the moon rock had been on display since Jan. 20, 2021 in the Oval Office as a way to recognize not only NASA's past lunar achievements but also its ambitious plans to send Americans back to the moon under its Artemis campaign.
Loaned from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, "lunar sample 76015,143" is a 3.9-billion-year-old chunk of the moon collected in 1972 during the final Apollo mission. Apollo 17 astronauts Ronald Evans, Harrison Schmitt, and Eugene Cernan, the last humans to set foot on the moon, chipped the sample from a large boulder at the base of a mountainous feature in the Taurus-Littrow Valley, the mission's exploration site.
At less than a pound in weight, the 332-gram sample was believed to have formed during the last large crater-forming impact event on the moon's nearside.
Once it's back in NASA's custody at the agency's headquarters, the moon rock will eventually make its way back to the Johnson Space Center for safekeeping, a spokeswoman said.
Trump, Musk focus on Mars missions
For years, NASA has been planning a series of moon missions that include sending American astronauts back to the lunar surface as early as 2027 before heading to Mars.
The space agency's approach would involve setting up a basecamp of sorts on the moon to facilitate expeditions to the Red Planet. The water ice thought to be present in the unexplored lunar south pole, where NASA plans to one day land its astronauts, would not only help sustain them on the surface, but it also would be a source of hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel.
Already, a fleet of private lunar landers hired by NASA are planning to venture to the moon this year to pave the way for humanity's return.
During his inaugural speech, however, Trump ignored NASA's lunar ambitions while touting his goal of humanity reaching Mars during his second term.
"We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars," Trump said as SpaceX founder Elon Musk threw his hands into the air during a standing ovation that followed.
Billionaire Musk, a staunch Trump ally who has often stated his goal of making "life multiplanetary," has himself envisioned a more aggressive approach of sending humans straight from Earth to Mars – perhaps as soon as 2028.
Musk's dream would involve SpaceX's massive Starship vehicle, which has yet to reach orbit in any of its seven flight tests so far. Curiously enough, the 400-foot Starship vehicle was also hired by NASA to meet Artemis III astronauts in orbit and ferry them down to the lunar surface from the Orion capsule.
Musk, who has often battled with federal regulators over Starship launches, hopes to ramp up testing of the spacecraft in 2025.
Contributing: Davis Winkie, Paste BN
Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for Paste BN. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com