Whether President Donald Trump still supports returning astronauts to the lunar surface remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain — the moon no longer has a place in his White House.
A moon rock, which for the past four years has been on display in the Oval Office, was removed as part of the Trump administration's redesign of the West Wing's most high-profile room. A NASA spokesperson confirmed the moon rock is being returned to the space agency in an email to collectSPACE.com.
The lunar sample, which was brought back to Earth by the last Apollo astronauts to walk on the moon in 1972, was intended as a symbol of the ongoing research being conducted by NASA as it prepares for future missions "to the cislunar orbit and beyond," as a plaque on the display's base read.
