CYPRUS HAS finally requested the return of its very own piece of moon, originally gifted to the island around 40 years ago and lost during the chaos of the 1974 coup and invasion, according to the Associated Press.
The tiny moon rock, weighing 1.14 grammes and taken from the moon’s Taurus Littrow valley during the 1972 Apollo 17 mission, was supposed to be a gift from then US President Richard Nixon to the people of Cyprus as a symbol of “the unity of human endeavour” and “hope of the American people for a world at peace”.
Around 270 moon rocks were scooped up by US astronauts between 1969 and 1972 and then given to countries and their representative governments around the world by the Nixon administration as an act of goodwill. Each rock, encased in acrylic, was proudly mounted on a plaque with the intended recipient’s flag.
However, over the decades, many of these little fragments of rock mysteriously disappeared, some stolen in the hope of earning big bucks on the black market, others lost in the aftermath of political turmoil.
Many of the moon rocks have been returned to their rightful countries over the course of time, such as the more recent case of the Nicaragua Apollo 11 moon rock found in the hands of a Las Vegas casino mogul.
In the case of Cyprus, however, the country never even got the chance to briefly enjoy the precious gift.
Initially, it was believed the moon rock went missing from the presidential palace during the tumultuous events of 1974. In 2007 however it came to light that the Goodwill Moon Rock was never actually given to the Cyprus government, but was instead kept at the US Embassy in Nicosia during the 1974 war until it could be officially handed over to the government.
When Roger Davies, the US ambassador to Cyprus, was assassinated in 1974, American diplomatic personnel were quickly evacuated and the moon rock mysteriously disappeared.
Until just a few years ago, no one officially knew where it was. That is, until moon rock hunter and enthusiast, Joe Gutheinz located it.
The ex-NASA special agent and current professor at the University of Arizona has made it his mission to locate as many missing moon rocks as possible and return them to their intended recipients.
Helped by his students, he embarked on a search to track down the Cyprus moon rock, discovering in the process a most unique set of circumstances which led to the rock’s disappearance.
In 2009, he discovered that the Cyprus moon rock, complete with the accompanying plaque and flag, had been put up for sale on the black market by a US diplomat’s relative who took the rock back to America following the Cyprus invasion.
Gutheinz adopted a two-pronged approach, encouraging US law enforcement to get involved and reclaim it while putting pressure on the seller to give the rock back.
Eventually, in May 2010, an unnamed person handed the rock to NASA.
Speaking to the Cyprus Mail at the time, Gutheinz said: “I would never have guessed that an American had kept the rock. In every other country it has been someone in the government of the recipient country that took the rock. I have not once come across a story like this in all the years I’ve been looking for moon rocks.”
Two years after it was given shelter at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre, Gutheinz expressed concern that the rock would never actually make it to its intended recipient.
“It needs to be returned to its rightful owner. These moon rocks should be seen by the children of your nation in a museum,” Gutheinz told the paper last June.
When the Cyprus Mail asked the Cyprus Foreign Ministry last year whether they would request the return of the rock, the reply was a muffled one, with the relevant official saying: “We don’t know much about it.”
However, according to the Associated Press, on Wednesday, “a Cyprus foreign ministry official said US authorities are favourably considering a Cypriot request that the rock be handed over”.
The official said a number of bureaucratic hurdles need to be overcome, meaning it will still take some time before the rock is handed over to the Cyprus government, some 40 years after initially planned.
Unless Cyprus sets up its own space agency, this tiny rock could be the closest to the moon Cypriots will ever get. Given the lack of interest in further moon landings by the US, perhaps the Cypriot government should avoid acquiring this valuable asset until after full implementation of the memorandum with the troika.
The Cyprus moon rock is currently with NASA