Apollo 17

Apollo 17 was the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program, and was the sixth and last mission to date to land on the Moon. It was the first night launch, and the final mission, of the Apollo program.

Crew

• Eugene Cernan (flew on Gemini 9A, Apollo 10, & Apollo 17), commander
• Ron Evans (flew on Apollo 17), command module pilot
• Harrison "Jack" Schmitt (flew on Apollo 17), lunar module pilot

Backup crew

• John Young, commander
• Stuart Roosa, command module pilot
• Charles Duke, lunar module pilot

Support Crew

• Robert Overmyer
• Bob Parker
• Gordon Fullerton

Mission parameters

• Mass:
  • Launch mass: 2,923,387 kg
  • Total spacecraft: 46,678 kg
    • CSM mass: 30,320 kg, of which CM was 5960 kg, SM 24,360 kg
    • LM mass: 16,448 kg, of which ascent stage was 4985 kg, descent stage 11,463 kg
• Earth orbits: 2 before leaving for Moon, about one on return
• Lunar orbits: 75

• Perigee: 168.9 km
• Apogee: 171.3 km
• Inclination: 28.526°
• Period: 87.83 min

• Perilune: 97.4 km
• Apolune: 314.8 km
• Inclination: 159.9°
• Period: min
• Landing Site: 20.19080° N - 30.77168° E or
  20° 11' 26.88" N - 30° 46' 18.05" E

Docking

• Undocked: December 11, 1972 - 17:20:56 UTC
• Docked: December 15, 1972 - 01:10:15 UTC

EVAs

• Cernan and Schmitt - EVA 1
• EVA 1 Start: December 11, 1972, 23:54:49 UTC
• EVA 1 End: 12 December 07:06:42 UTC
• Duration: 7 hours, 11 minutes, 53 seconds

• Cernan and Schmitt - EVA 2
• EVA 2 Start: December 12, 1972, 23:28:06 UTC
• EVA 2 End: 13 December 07:05:02 UTC
• Duration: 7 hours, 36 minutes, 56 seconds

• Cernan and Schmitt - EVA 3
• EVA 3 Start: December 13, 1972, 22:25:48 UTC
• EVA 3 End: 14 December 05:40:56 UTC
• Duration: 7 hours, 15 minutes, 08 seconds

• Evans - Transearth EVA 4
• EVA 4 Start: December 17, 1972, 20:27:40 UTC
• EVA 4 End: 17 December 21:33:24 UTC
• Duration: 1 hour, 05 minutes, 44 seconds

See also

• Extra-vehicular activity
• List of spacewalks
• Splashdown
• List of artificial objects on the Moon

The splashdown point was 17 deg 53 min S, 166 deg 7 min W, 350 nautical miles SE of the Samoan Islands and 6.5 km (4 mi) from the recovery ship USS Ticonderoga.

Mission highlights

One of the last two men to set foot on the Moon was also the first scientist-astronaut, geologist Harrison Schmitt. While Evans circled in "America," Schmitt and Cernan collected a record 108.86 kilograms of rocks during three Moonwalks. The crew roamed for 33.80 kilometers through the Taurus-Littrow valley in their rover, discovered orange-colored soil, and left the most comprehensive set of instruments in the ALSEP on the lunar surface. Their mission was the last in the Apollo lunar program.

Introduction

Crew members were Gene Cernan, commander; Ron Evans, command module pilot; and Harrison Schmitt, lunar module pilot.

The landing site for this mission was on the southeastern rim of the Mare Serenitatis, in the southwestern Montes Taurus. This was a dark mantle between three high, steep massifs, in an area known as the Taurus-Littrow region. Pre-mission photographs showed boulders deposited along the bases of the mountains, which could provide bedrock samples. The area also contained a landslide, several impact craters, and some dark craters which could be volcanic.

A J-class mission, featuring the Lunar Rover, they conducted three lunar surface excursions, lasting 7.2, 7.6 and 7.3 hours. The mission returned 110.5 kg of samples from the Moon.

The Command module is currently on display at NASA's Johnson Space Center, in Houston, Texas. The lunar module impacted the Moon on 15 December 1972 at 06:50:20.8 UT (1:50 AM EST) at 19.96 N, 30.50 E.

On this mission the astronauts took a famous photograph of the earth known as "The Blue Marble".

Mission notes

• Schmitt, a geologist, was the first (and to date, only) scientist on the moon.

• Like the astronauts of Apollos 10, 12, 13, and 14 before it, the Apollo 17 crew were recovered in Pacific waters near American Samoa after splashdown, and were flown from the recovery ship to the airport at Tafuna where they were greeted with an enthusiastic (and well practiced!) Samoan reception before being flown on to Honolulu, thence to Houston.

• The plaque left on the ladder of the descent stage of Challenger read: Here Men from the Planet Earth completed their first exploration of the moon. December 1972 AD. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind. The plaque showed two hemispheres of Earth and the near side of the Moon, plus the signatures of Cernan, Evans, Schmitt, and President Nixon.

• Schmitt was originally due to fly on the cancelled Apollo 18 but following pressure from the science community was moved up to LM pilot on Apollo 17 in favour of Joe Engle.

Quote

"As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come - but we believe not too long into the future - I'd like to just [say] what I believe history will record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus- Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."

— Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17 Commander. Last man to walk on the moon, 14 December 1972.

Media

Reference

• NASA NSSDC Master Catalog
• Apollo 17 Info by NASA
• APOLLO BY THE NUMBERS: A Statistical Reference by Richard W. Orloff (NASA)
• Development of Manned Space Flight, American and Soviet NASA SP-4209
• The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology
• Apollo Program Summary Report
• Apollo 17 Characteristics - SP-4012 NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK
• Apollo 17 entry at Apollo Lunar Surface Jurnal - Provides an extensive insight of the mission, along with full transcripts and detailed interviews with the crewmembers.

External links

• Apollo 17 entry in Encyclopedia Astronautica
• September 1973 National Geographic Magazine article

See also: Apollo 17, 12 December, 13 December, 14 December, 15 December