Irma topples NASA's 'Moon Tree' that flew on Apollo 14

Emre Kelly | Florida Today

Show Caption Hide Caption Moon Tree falls victim to Hurricane Irma A historic tree that traveled farther than most humans and orbited the moon dozens of times in 1971 fell victim to Hurricane Irma's winds.

CAPE CANAVERAL — A tiny tree seed that orbited the moon in an Apollo command module and grew to shade tourists at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex was lost to the winds of Hurricane Irma.

Known as a "Moon Tree," the sycamore seed spent nearly two weeks of 1971 tucked away in the personal kit of Apollo 14 astronaut Stuart Roosa and completed 34 orbits of Earth's closest neighbor.

Back home, the sycamore seed sprouted and the young tree was planted in 1976 to celebrate the U.S. bicentennial.

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"The Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex Moon Tree was a beautiful, living artifact, and part of our nation’s history of space exploration," the visitor complex said in a statement. "We were saddened to lose it."

In February 1971, at the behest of the U.S. Forest Service chief, hundreds of tree seeds were carried to space by Roosa, a former "smokejumper," or firefighter who parachutes into remote regions to combat forest fires. He stayed behind in the "Kitty Hawk" command module and orbited the moon while astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell touched down on the surface.

Biologists were interested in studying germination of the seeds after their voyage, but a mishap forced a change of plans. The canister burst during the decontamination process after Apollo 14 returned to Earth, mixing the hundreds of redwood, pine, sycamore, Douglas fir and sweet gum seeds. They were deemed unusable for experiments, but were grown anyway.

Hundreds of the trees were planted across the country to celebrate the nation's 200th birthday, though all their locations were not properly documented, according to a NASA report. Some trees even found their way to other countries.

Over the years, second-generation trees, called "half-moon" trees, have been planted from seeds or cuttings from an original Moon Tree and thrive across the U.S., according to NASA.

In 2005, a second-generation sycamore was planted near Roosa's grave at Arlington National Cemetery to honor him and his fellow Apollo astronauts.

Branches of the Moon Tree at KSC's visitor complex reached toward the skies from a bed near the Milky Way ice cream stand for 40 years. Looking like any other sycamore, it challenged ideas that exposure to microgravity would alter its appearance.

But the tree was no match for Irma's winds, which, as the storm barreled through Florida Sept. 10 and 11, NASA clocked at up to 94 mph.

After the fallen sycamore's trunk and branches were cleared away, the visitor complex recalled its purpose: "The spirit of the Moon Tree lives on as we continue to share the NASA story of space exploration."

Follow Emre Kelly on Twitter: @EmreKelly

Moon Tree locations

Hundreds of Moon Trees were planted across the United States to celebrate the nation's bicentennial in 1976. Here are some of the locations in Florida:

• Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (sycamore, former)

• Apollo Elementary School, Titusville (sycamore)

• University of Florida, Gainesville (sycamore)

• Keystone Heights Library, Keystone Heights (sycamore)

• Forest Capital State Park, Perry (loblolly pine)

• Cascades Park, Tallahassee (sycamore)

• Doyle Conner Building, Tallahassee (loblolly pine)

Sources: NASA, and Florida Today research