The Moon Trees

Apollo 14's February 1971 mission carried roughly 2,000 tree seeds into lunar orbit, a joint NASA/U.S. Forest Service experiment that produced the "Moon Trees" distributed across the U.S. and abroad. Former smoke jumper Stuart Roosa, piloting the command module "Kitty Hawk" while Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell walked on the Moon, packed the seeds—loblolly pine, sycamore, sweetgum, redwood, and Douglas fir—selected by Forest Service scientist Stan Krugman under Chief Ed Cliff. Though the seed bags burst during post-flight decontamination and viability was feared lost, germination succeeded at Forest Service stations in Gulfport, Mississippi, and Placerville, California, with control plantings showing no discernible difference after 40-plus years. Most seedlings were given to state forestry organizations in 1975-76 for the U.S. bicentennial, including a loblolly pine at the White House and trees in Brazil, Switzerland, and Japan. The program stands as a tribute to Roosa and the Apollo program, with plantings at sites such as Washington Square in Philadelphia, Valley Forge, and the International Forest of Friendship. Watch for continued documentation of surviving Moon Trees as a legacy asset of the Apollo era.