In 1971, an astronaut from the Apollo 14 mission carried several hundred seeds around the Moon. These seeds eventually grew into hundreds of trees, known as Moon trees, which were planted across the United States but largely forgotten over time. Before the Apollo 14 mission, the U.S. space agency, NASA, and the Forest Service gave Stuart Roosa, an astronaut, several hundred seeds. According to NASA, Roosa's spacecraft circled the Moon in February 1971 without landing. This was the first time forest material had been transported by an astronaut as part of a mission. Today, some of these trees can still be seen in schools and public parks across the United States. The seeds were stored in a small metal container about 15 centimeters long. Stanley Krugman, a geneticist, selected five tree species and placed their seeds in small plastic pouches: loblolly pine, western sycamore, sweetgum, coastal redwood, and Douglas fir. Control groups of these seeds remained on Earth to compare their growth with those that had traveled to the Moon. Roosa, who had previously served as a firefighter and paratrooper, completed 34 orbits around the Moon in his spacecraft, named Kitty Hawk. After the mission, the seeds narrowly avoided destruction during decontamination. A pressure difference caused the pouches to burst, exposing the seeds to the vacuum of space. The Forest Service initially believed the seeds were dead, but Krugman managed to recover and sort them. He sent the seeds to two locations: Gulfport, Mississippi, and Placerville, California. These sites eventually grew about 450 young trees. These young trees remained in nurseries until 1975. On May 6, the first planting took place at Washington Square in Philadelphia, where Roosa personally used a shovel in front of 250 people. Each of the 50 U.S. states received some of these trees for the bicentennial celebrations in 1976. During these events, a message from President Gerald Ford was read, and a pine tree was planted at the White House lawn. However, no significant differences were observed between the Moon trees and the control trees grown on Earth. The lack of a clear scientific effect led to a lack of centralized tracking. Each state's forest service received its share of trees, but no national records were kept. NASA and the Forest Service did not maintain detailed inventories of the plantings. Some trees still have bronze plaques marking them, though these are often hidden by ivy over time. In 1996, a teacher named Joan Goble and her class discovered one of these plaques near the Indiana Capitol. Her letter to NASA surprised the agency, as it had largely forgotten about the program. A planetary scientist at Goddard, David Williams, then started tracking the trees. Today, about 65 of the original Moon trees are known to still be alive. The story of the Moon trees has continued into the 21st century. During the Artemis I mission in 2022, seeds from five species were sent around the Moon as part of an educational program. As of 2024, schools, museums, and universities can request these young plants. The University of Arizona, which already has a western sycamore planted in 1976, received a sweetgum as part of this new initiative.