Moon rocks, about the size of a grain of sand, were given as gifts to foreign countries by the Richard Nixon Administration. NASA originally gave the moon rocks to the U. S. State Department, and has since been trying to trace the locations. There was not an official list of gift recipients.

At the time, everyone thought that lunar missions would continue and moon rocks on earth would become common. Thus, the rocks were treated as souvenirs, rather than extremely rare gifts. Locating the original moon rocks now seems urgent.

A total of 2,200 samples of moon rocks weighing 842 pounds were collected by astronauts landing on the moon. Three unmanned Soviet Luna spacecraft trips brought .66 pounds back to Earth.