73-028 Apollo 16 and 17 samples exchanged with USSR

NASA Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas 77058

FOR RELEASE: March 16, 1973

Terry White 713/483-5111

RELEASE NO: 73-28

APOLLO 16 AND 17 SAMPLES EXCHANGED WITH USSR

Rock and soil samples from the Descartes and Taurus-Littrow lunar landing sites today were delivered to two representatives of the Academy of Sciences of the Soviet Union. The moon fragments were collected by U.S. astronauts during the Apollo 16 and 17 missions in 1972.

The handover of three grams from each mission was made by Dr. Paul Gast, Chief of Planetary and Earth Sciences Division of the Johnson Space Center. The samples were accepted by Vladimir Shcherbina and Lev Tarasov of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR Vernadsky Institute. Shcherbina and Tarasov delivered scientific papers at the recently completed Fourth Annual Lunar Science Conference at JSC.

JSC Lunar Sample Curator Dr. Michael Duke said that the samples presented to the Soviets represented the widest variety of soil and distinct rock types from Apollo 16 and 17.

The exchanges of samples from lunar landing missions is part of an agreement between the two countries for joint study of lunar material. The Soviets have also received samples from Apollo 11, 12, 14, and 15. The United States has received samples from the Soviet Union's unmanned Luna 16 and 20 spacecraft which brought back to earth samples of soil from the Moon's Sea of Fertility.

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