NASA, Forest Service Distribute Artemis I Moon Trees Across 48 States, Reviving Apollo 14 Tradition
Updated
Updated · spacedaily.com · May 26
NASA, Forest Service Distribute Artemis I Moon Trees Across 48 States, Reviving Apollo 14 Tradition
3 articles · Updated · spacedaily.com · May 26
Artemis I carried a new batch of tree seeds beyond the Moon aboard Orion, and NASA with the U.S. Forest Service has been distributing the resulting seedlings to schools, museums, federal sites and other public institutions.
The program revives the Apollo 14 "Moon Tree" experiment from 1971, when astronaut Stuart Roosa took hundreds of seeds into lunar orbit; many were later planted during the 1975-76 bicentennial.
Those original seeds never touched lunar soil and showed no detectable growth differences from control seeds after return, but the trees became living monuments because of their flight history.
NASA says the Artemis distribution runs through planting cycles from spring 2024 to fall 2025 across the contiguous United States, extending a public ritual that links spaceflight to everyday landscapes.
The renewed effort also comes just after Artemis II's April 2026 crewed lunar flyby, giving the decades-old Moon Tree idea fresh relevance in NASA's return to lunar exploration.
What secrets might the new Artemis Moon Trees reveal that the original Apollo generation could not with past technology?
As NASA rediscovers lost Apollo-era trees, what forgotten local histories are these silent space travelers finally telling us?