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Apollo 17
Mission Insignia
Apollo 17 insignia
Mission Statistics
Mission Name: Apollo 17
Call Sign: Command module: America
Lunar module: Challenger
Number of
Crew: 		3
Launch: December 7 1972
05:33:00 UTC
Kennedy Space Center
LC 39A
Lunar Landing: December 11 1972
19:54:57 UTC
20° 11' 26.88" N - 30° 46' 18.05" E
Taurus-Littrow
Lunar EVA
length: 		1st: 7 h 11 min 53 s
2nd: 7 h 36 min 56 s
3rd: 7 h 15 min 8 s
Total: 22 h 3 min 57 s
CMP EVA: 1 h 5 min 44 s
Lunar surface
time: 		74 h 59 min 40 s
Lunar sample
mass: 		110.52 kg (243.65 lb)
Splashdown: December 19 1972
19:24:59 UTC
17° 53' S - 166° 7' W
Duration: 12 d 13 h 51 min 59 s
Number of
Lunar orbits: 		75
Time in
Lunar orbit: 		147 h 43 min 37.11 s
Mass: CSM 30,369 kg;
LM 16,456 kg
Crew picture
Apollo 17 crew portrait (L-R: Schmitt, Cernan (seated) and Evans)
Apollo 17 crew portrait
(L-R: Schmitt, Cernan (seated) and Evans)
Night View
Apollo 17 - The Last Moon Shot
Apollo 17 — The Last Moon Shot

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

Contents

Crew

Backup crew

Support Crew

Mission parameters

Docking

EVAs

See also

The splashdown point was 17° 53′ S, 166° 7′ W, 350 nautical miles (650 km) SE of the Samoan Islands and 6.5 km (4 mi) from the recovery ship USS Ticonderoga. Apollo 17 landed approximately 640 meters from its target point.

Mission highlights

Schmitt took this picture of Cernan flanked by an American flag and their lunar rover's umbrella-shaped high-gain antenna near the beginning of their third and final excursion across the lunar surface. The prominent Sculptured Hills lie in the background while Schmitt's reflection can just be made out in Cernan's helmet.
Enlarge
Schmitt took this picture of Cernan flanked by an American flag and their lunar rover's umbrella-shaped high-gain antenna near the beginning of their third and final excursion across the lunar surface. The prominent Sculptured Hills lie in the background while Schmitt's reflection can just be made out in Cernan's helmet.

Command Module pilot Ron Evans performs a trans-earth EVA to retrieve film from the Apollo 17 SIM Bay camera. (NASA)
Enlarge
Command Module pilot Ron Evans performs a trans-earth EVA to retrieve film from the Apollo 17 SIM Bay camera. (NASA)

Apollo 17 recovery operations. (NASA)
Enlarge
Apollo 17 recovery operations. (NASA)

Depiction of the plaque left on the moon by Apollo 17
Enlarge
Depiction of the plaque left on the moon by Apollo 17

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 109 kg (240 pounds) of rocks during three Moonwalks. The crew roamed for 34 km (21 miles) 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 Eugene 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 (243.6 lb) 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 December 15 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

Quotes

"Ah! You see one Earth, you've seen them all."

— Jack Schmitt, Lunar Module Pilot.
"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, December 14 1972.
"Okay, Jack. Let's get this mother outta here."

— Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 17 Commander. Apocryphal last 'informal' words said on the lunar surface, one second before lunar liftoff.

Mission insignia

The circular patch is one of the most detailed of the Apollo series. The official NASA press release said: "The insignia is dominated by the image of Apollo, the Greek sun god. Suspended in space behind the head of Apollo is an American eagle of contemporary design, the red bars of the eagle's wing represent the bars in the U.S. flag; the three white stars symbolize the three astronaut crewmen. The background is deep blue space and within it are the Moon, the planet Saturn and a spiral galaxy or nebula. The Moon is partially overlaid by the eagle's wing suggesting that this is a celestial body that man has visited and in that sense conquered. The thrust of the eagle and the gaze of Apollo to the right and toward Saturn and the galaxy is meant to imply that man's goals in space will someday include the planets and perhaps the stars. The colors of the emblem are red, white and blue, the colors of our flag; with the addition of gold, to symbolize the golden age of space flight that will begin with this Apollo 17 lunar landing. The Apollo image used in this emblem was the Apollo of Belvedere sculpture now in the Vatican Gallery in Rome. This emblem was designed by artist Robert T. McCall in collaboration with the astronauts."

Media

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
[Special]

Project Apollo

SA-1 | SA-2 | SA-3 | SA-4 | SA-5 | A-101 | A-102 | A-103 | A-104 | A-105
Pad Abort Test-1 | Pad Abort Test-2 | QTV | A-001 | A-002 | A-003 | A-004 | AS-201 | AS-203 | AS-202
Apollo 1 | Apollo 4 | Apollo 5 | Apollo 6 | Apollo 7 | Apollo 8 | Apollo 9 | Apollo 10 | Apollo 11 | Apollo 12 | Apollo 13 | Apollo 14 | Apollo 15 | Apollo 16 | Apollo 17

 

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