Chris Burns - Jan 22, 2021, 10:01am CST
A hunk of the moon was delivered to the Biden administration on January 20, 2021. At the request of the President of the United States, NASA delivered a container with a sample of the lunar surface for display in the Oval Office. This piece of our nearest space neighbor now sits in the most important office in the world, in the White House, “in symbolic recognition of earlier generations’ ambitions and accomplishments, and support for America’s current Moon to Mars exploration approach.”
The Biden Administration requested the sample from the Lunar Sample Laboratory Facility at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. This triangular case carries a moon rock, suspended in space, available for viewing from several angles.
NASA
At the request of President Joe Biden, a moon rock is now on display in the Oval Office.
Lunar sample 76015,143 is a remnant from a violent asteroid impact on the moon’s surface.
Astronauts collected the sample during Apollo 17, the final mission to the moon.
As President Joe Biden took the oath of office on the steps of the Capitol building on Wednesday, White House staffers busily prepared the Oval Office for his arrival. They added a bust of Caesar Chavez behind the resolute desk, swapped out one set of gold curtains for another, and replaced a portrait of Andrew Jackson with that of Benjamin Franklin, among other changes.