Apollo 17 landing

Apollo 17 · 1972 CE · The Moon

Apollo 17 landing — Apollo 17 · 1972 CE · The Moon — Recorded expedition route · schematic map

Land two astronauts, one of them the geologist Harrison Schmitt, in the valley of Taurus–Littrow for three days of field geology, while Ronald Evans surveys the Moon from orbit: the last Apollo landing.

Historical context

Apollo 17 was the last Apollo landing: three later missions had been cancelled as NASA's budget shrank. It carried Harrison Schmitt, a geologist, the first scientist to walk on the Moon, to the valley of Taurus–Littrow, chosen for its geological variety: dark soil that some took for young volcanic ash, boulders from ancient massifs, a landslide and a dark crater that might be a vent. Eugene Cernan, its commander, is so far the last person to have walked on the Moon.

The voyage, step by step

  1. The last Apollo to the Moon

    7 December 1972

    Thirty seconds before the planned lift-off at 02:53 UTC on 7 December 1972, 21:53 Eastern Standard Time on the 6th, the automatic sequencer stops Apollo 17's countdown.

  2. Night launch

    7 December 1972

    At 05:33 UTC on 7 December, 00:33 Eastern Standard Time, the only Saturn V ever launched at night lifts Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt off Pad 39A; about five hours later the crew photograph the whole, sunlit Earth.

  3. A scientist at last

    10 December 1972

    Harrison Schmitt, a geologist who had helped train the earlier crews, is the first scientist bound for the Moon. On 10 December, at 19:47 UTC, Apollo 17 brakes into lunar orbit.

  4. Taurus–Littrow

    11 December 1972

    At 19:54 UTC on 11 December, 13:54 in Houston, Cernan sets the lunar module Challenger down in the valley of Taurus–Littrow: “Okay, Houston. The Challenger has landed!”

  5. The orange soil

    13 December 1972

    At Shorty crater, at 04:19 UTC on 13 December, 22:19 on the 12th in Houston, Schmitt sees orange in the soil his boots have stirred: “There is orange soil!!”

  6. The last footsteps so far

    14 December 1972

    At 05:34 UTC on 14 December, 23:34 on the 13th in Houston, Cernan speaks his last words on the surface and climbs aboard Challenger; it lifts off at 22:54 UTC that day, and the crew splash down in the Pacific on 19 December.

Outcome

Three moonwalks totalling twenty-two hours in Taurus–Littrow, 110.52 kilograms of samples including the orange soil of Shorty crater, and splashdown on 19 December 1972; the last crewed landing on the Moon so far.

Apollo 17

The last crewed Moon landing so far, which carried the geologist Harrison Schmitt, the first scientist to walk on the Moon, to the valley of Taurus–Littrow.

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Sources

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