It's a plain, bulging leather satchel, but inside it has the ominous power to unleash a nuclear armageddon.
And on Friday it falls into Donald Trump's control.
When he is sworn in as president, Trump inherits control of the "football," the briefcase that carries the procedures and communications equipment that allow the US leader to launch nuclear missiles.
The bag, aluminum-framed and weighing 45 pounds (20 kilograms)goes everywhere he goes, carried by a military aid.
Trump also gets, with the satchel, the "biscuit" -- a pocket-sized card with the codes the president needs to authenticate his command to launch a nuclear attack.
The football has been omnipresent with the leader of the world's most powerful nation since around 1963, according to Smithsonian magazine.
It has to stay close to the president, given that he will have less than five minutes to react before nuclear missiles launched at the United States by, say, China or Russia, strike.
It is the president's sole decision, and he must input the codes in secure communications with a Pentagon command and control center to launch US nuclear weapons.
"He doesn't have to check with anybody," said vice president Dick Cheney in 2008. "He doesn't have to call the Congress. He doesn't have to check with the courts. He has that authority because of the nature of the world we live in."
Read the full story at SpaceDaily