At the request of President Joe Biden’s new administration, NASA has loaned a moonstone to display in the White House’s Oval Office.
The request was made “in symbolic recognition of the aspirations and achievements of previous generations, and in support of America’s current exploration approach between the moon and Mars,” NASA reports.
The object comes from the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston and is inscribed in his case as lunar sample 76015,143.
Apollo 17 astronaut Ronald Evans and moonwalkers Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan, the last people to set foot on the moon, sampled a large rock at the base of the Massif Norte in the Taurus-Littrow Valley, 2 miles from the Lunar Module , according to the information collected in the display case.
The 332 gram piece of the moon was collected in 1972 and is a 3.9 billion year old sample formed during the last major impact on the near side of the moon, the Imbrium Impact Basin, which has a diameter of 1145 kilometer.
The uneven surfaces of the samples contain small craters created when micrometeorite impacts polished the rock over millions of years. The flat, serrated sides were created at NASA’s Lunar Healing Laboratory when the plates were cut for scientific research.
On the other hand, President Biden has appointed Steve Jurczyk as the acting NASA administrator, pending his final appointment to the agency. Jurczyk has relieved Jim Bridenstine since May 2018 and is one of 34 senior officials who announced the new administration hours after taking office.