Eugene Cernan: Houston, before we close out our EVA, we understand that there are young people in Houston today who have been effectively touring our country, young people from countries all over the world, respectively, touring our country. They had the opportunity to watch the launch of Apollo 17; (and) hopefully had an opportunity to meet some of our young people in our country. And we'd like to say first of all, welcome, and we hope you enjoyed your stay. Second of all, I think probably one of the most significant things we can think about when we think about Apollo is that it has opened for us - "for us" being the world - a challenge of the future. The door is now cracked, but the promise of the future lies in the young people, not just in America, but the young people all over the world learning to live and learning to work together. In order to remind all the people of the world in so many countries throughout the world that this is what we all are striving for in the future, Jack has picked up a very significant rock, typical of what we have here in the valley of Taurus-Littrow.

It's a rock composed of many fragments, of many sizes, and many shapes, probably from all parts of the Moon, perhaps billions of years old. But fragments of all sizes and shapes - and even colors - that have grown together to become a cohesive rock, outlasting the nature of space, sort of living together in a very coherent, very peaceful manner. When we return this rock or some of the others like it to Houston, we'd like to share a piece of this rock with so many of the countries throughout the world. We hope that this will be a symbol of what our feelings are, what the feelings of the Apollo Program are, and a symbol of mankind: that we can live in peace and harmony in the future.

Harrison Schmitt: A portion of a rock will be sent to a representative agency or museum in each of the countries represented by the young people in Houston today, and we hope that they - that rock and the students themselves - will carry with them our good wishes, not only for the new year coming up but also for themselves, their countries, and all mankind in the future. Put that in the big bag, Geno.

Letter from President Richard Nixon to foreign heads of state, dated March 21, 1973, reproduced from the National Archives via the Apollo 17 Moon Rock Website:

The Apollo lunar landing program conducted by the United States has been brought to a successful conclusion. Men from the planet Earth have reached the first milestone in space. But as we stretch for the stars, we know that we stand also upon the shoulders of many men of many nations here on our own planet. In the deepest sense our exploration of the moon was truly an international effort.

It is for this reason that, on behalf of the people of the United States I present this flag, which was carried to the moon, to the State, and its fragment of the moon obtained during the final lunar mission of the Apollo program.

If people of many nations can act together to achieve the dreams of humanity in space, then surely we can act together to accomplish humanity's dream of peace here on earth. It was in this spirit that the Untied States of America went to the moon, and it is in this spirit that we look forward to sharing what we have done and what we have learned with all mankind.

Each of the presentations included an individually-serialized fragment of sample 70017, a.k.a. the Goodwill rock. In addition to the 135 rocks prepared for foreign heads of state, samples were also gifted to each of the 50 states and Puerto Rico.

Adapted from Astromaterials Curation at NASA JSC, courtesy Ken Glover. collectSPACE has added, where applicable, the sample's current location or reported status:

No.		Country		Location/Notes
291		China
294		Afghanistan
295		Argentina		Planetario Galileo Galilei (unconfirmed)
296		Australia		"To Mars and Beyond" traveling exhibit
297		Austria		Naturhistorisches Museum, Meteorite Hall
298		Bahamas
299		Bahrain
300		Barbados
301		Belgium
302		Bolivia
303		Brazil
304		Canada		Canadian Museum of Nature, in storage at "closed to the public" facility in Aylmer, QC
305		Chad
306		Taiwan
307		Colombia
308		Costa Rica
309		Dahomey
310		Denmark
311		Dominican Republic
312		Ecuador
313		Egypt
314		Congo Republic
315		El Salvador
316		Finland		Mineralogical Museum of the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK), Otaniemi, Espoo
317		Gabon
318		W. Germany		Deutsches Museum, Munich
319		Solomon Islands		Soloman Islands National Museum
320		Guatemala
321		Guyana		National Museum of Guyana (unconfirmed)
322		Haiti
323		Honduras		purchased illegally in Honduras for $50,000 and a truck and then smuggled into the United States in 1995; offered for sale for $5 million to an undercover NASA OIG agent and confiscated in 1998; returned to Honduras and now on display in Tegucigalpa at Centro Interactivo Chiminike
324		Iceland
325		India
326		Indonesia
327		Iran
328		Ireland		National Museum of Ireland, Museum of Natural History, Dublin
329		Israel
330		Italy
331		Ivory Coast
332		Jamaica
333		Japan
334		Jordan
335		Khmer
336		Korea
337		Lebanon
338		Liberia
339		Luxemborg
340		Malta		reported stolen 5/2004; National Museum of Natural History, Mdina
341		Mexico
342		Netherlands
343		New Zealand
344		Nicaragua
345		Niger
346		Nigeria
347		Norway
348		Pakistan
349		Panama
350		Paraguay
351		Peru
352		Philippines
353		Portugal
354		Qatar
355		Saudi Arabia
356		South Africa		Transvaal Museum, Pretoria
357		Spain
358		Swaziland
359		Switzerland
360		Tanzania
361		Thailand
362		Togo
363		Tunisia
364		Turkey
365		United Kingdom
366		Uruguay
367		Venezuela
368		VietNam
369		Zambia
370		Algeria
371		Bhutan
372		Botswana
373		Bulgaria
374		Burma
375		Cameroon
376		Central African
377		Mozambique
378		Cyprus
379		Czechoslova
380		Guinea Equa
381		Ethiopia
382		Fiji
383		France
384		Gambia
385		Ghana
386		Guinea Republic
387		Hungary
388		Kenya
389		Kuwait
390		Laos		"Haw Kham" Royal Palace Museum, Luang Prabang
391		Lesotho
392		Libya
393		Malagasy
394		Malawi
395		Malaysia
396		Maldives
397		Mali
398		Mauritania
399		Mauritius
400		Morocco
401		Nepal
402		Oman
403		Poland
404		Romania		Possibly sold among the possessions of late dictator Ceausescu
405		Rwanda
406		Senegal
407		Sierra Leone
408		Singapore		Science Centre exhibit "Planetary Landscapes"
409		Somali
410		Sri Lanka
411		Sudan
412		Trinidad Tobago
413		USSR
414		United Arab Emirates		Al Ain National Museum (unconfirmed)
415		Upper Volta
416		Yemen
417		Yugoslavia
418		Zaire
420		Bangladesh
421		Liechtenstein
422		Monaco
423		Nauru
424		San Marino
425		Tonga
426		Vatican		St. Peter's Basilica (unconfirmed)
427		West Samoa
428		Chile
429		Sweden		Observatory Museum

Do you know the current whereabouts of a fragment of Sample 70017? Have a correction to the above? Write us at moonrocks@collectspace.com