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Apollo 17

  

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

  • Gene Cernan (3), commander
  • Ron Evans (1), command module pilot
  • Harrison "Jack" Schmitt (1), lunar module pilot

    (1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission.

    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

    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


    '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.

    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 comprensive set of instruments in the ALSEP on the lunar surface. The Apollo lunar program had ended.

    Introduction


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

    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.


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