171-566: As part of the Apollo program by NASA , 24 astronauts flew nine missions to the Moon between December 1968 and December 1972. During six successful two-man landing missions, twelve men walked on the lunar surface, six of whom drove Lunar Roving Vehicles as part of the last three missions. Three men have been to the Moon twice, one orbited once and took a circumlunar trajectory the second time, while
342-541: A mission module cabin separate from the command module (piloting and reentry cabin), and a propulsion and equipment module . On August 30, a feasibility study competition was announced, and on October 25, three study contracts were awarded to General Dynamics/Convair , General Electric , and the Glenn L. Martin Company . Meanwhile, NASA performed its own in-house spacecraft design studies led by Maxime Faget , to serve as
513-410: A "red streak" crossing the northern sky. Among those in attendance at the program's final launch were astronauts Neil Armstrong and Dick Gordon, as well as centenarian Charlie Smith , who alleged he was 130 years old at the time of Apollo 17. The ascent resulted in an orbit with an altitude and velocity almost exactly that which had been planned. In the hours following the launch, Apollo 17 orbited
684-773: A 130-million-cubic-foot (3,700,000 m ) Vertical Assembly Building (VAB). in which the space vehicle (launch vehicle and spacecraft) would be assembled on a mobile launcher platform and then moved by a crawler-transporter to one of several launch pads. Although at least three pads were planned, only two, designated A and B, were completed in October 1965. The LOC also included an Operations and Checkout Building (OCB) to which Gemini and Apollo spacecraft were initially received prior to being mated to their launch vehicles. The Apollo spacecraft could be tested in two vacuum chambers capable of simulating atmospheric pressure at altitudes up to 250,000 feet (76 km), which
855-601: A Launch Escape System (LES). The LES contained a rocket motor that would propel the CM to safety in the event of an aborted mission in the moments after launch, while the SLA housed the LM during the launch and early part of the flight. The LES was jettisoned after the launch vehicle ascended to the point that it was not needed, while the SLA was left atop the S-IVB third stage of the rocket after
1026-598: A Lunar Roving Vehicle. In addition to being used by the astronauts for transport from station to station on the mission's three moonwalks, the LRV was used to transport the astronauts' tools, communications equipment, and the lunar samples they gathered. The Apollo 17 LRV was also used to carry some of the scientific instruments, such as the Traverse Gravimeter Experiment (TGE) and Surface Electrical Properties (SEP) experiment. The Apollo 17 LRV traveled
1197-461: A NASA geologist/pilot, Dick Laidley, over geologic features, with part of the exercise conducted at 40,000 feet (12,000 m), and part at 1,000 feet (300 m) to 5,000 feet (1,500 m). The higher altitude was equivalent to what could be seen from the planned lunar orbit of about 60 nmi with binoculars. Evans would be briefed for several hours before each exercise, and given study guides; afterwards, there would be debriefing and evaluation. Evans
1368-470: A commitment on America's response to the Soviets. On April 20, Kennedy sent a memo to Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson , asking Johnson to look into the status of America's space program, and into programs that could offer NASA the opportunity to catch up. Johnson responded approximately one week later, concluding that "we are neither making maximum effort nor achieving results necessary if this country
1539-410: A couple of experiments with Armstrong, Aldrin went to work hammering a tube into the lunar surface to obtain a core sample. Aldrin's EVA ended when they loaded the lunar samples into the spacecraft and tossed out unneeded items, just before sealing the hatch. Armstrong performed the majority of the photography on the surface, which is why there are only five photos of him on the Moon. Soon after piloting
1710-542: A cumulative distance of approximately 35.7 km (22.2 mi) in a total drive time of about four hours and twenty-six minutes; the greatest distance Cernan and Schmitt traveled from the lunar module was about 7.6 km (4.7 mi). This was the only mission to carry the TGE, which was built by Draper Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . As gravimeters had been useful in studying
1881-471: A depth of one meter takes about a billion years. Apollo 17's CM carried a biological cosmic ray experiment (BIOCORE), containing five mice that had been implanted with radiation monitors under their scalps to see whether they suffered damage from cosmic rays. These animals were placed in individual metal tubes inside a sealed container that had its own oxygen supply, and flown on the mission. All five were pocket mice ( Perognathus longimembris ); this species
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#17327797418132052-460: A gauge to judge and monitor the three industry designs. In November 1960, John F. Kennedy was elected president after a campaign that promised American superiority over the Soviet Union in the fields of space exploration and missile defense . Up to the election of 1960, Kennedy had been speaking out against the " missile gap " that he and many other senators said had developed between
2223-492: A great new American enterprise—time for this nation to take a clearly leading role in space achievement, which in many ways may hold the key to our future on Earth. ... I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important in
2394-527: A group of 19 more astronauts in April 1966. None had spaceflight experience before their Apollo mission. Twelve men walked on the Moon during six Moon landings of the Apollo program between July 1969 and December 1972. All landed on the surface only once, and five missions consisted of two or more surface extravehicular activities (EVAs) . Four of them are alive as of November 2024 with an average age of 91 years. Most astronauts at that time came from
2565-457: A landing in a region southwest of Mare Crisium was rejected on the grounds that a Soviet spacecraft could easily access the site and retrieve samples; Luna 20 ultimately did so shortly after the Apollo 17 site selection was made. Schmitt advocated for a landing on the far side of the Moon until told by Director of Flight Operations Christopher C. Kraft that it would not happen as NASA lacked
2736-409: A limited Earth orbital mission, Apollo would carry three. Possible missions included ferrying crews to a space station , circumlunar flights , and eventual crewed lunar landings . In July 1960, NASA Deputy Administrator Hugh L. Dryden announced the Apollo program to industry representatives at a series of Space Task Group conferences. Preliminary specifications were laid out for a spacecraft with
2907-546: A new area, Cernan would perform tasks such as adjusting the antenna on the Lunar Roving Vehicle so as to transmit to Earth while Schmitt gave a report on the geological aspects of the site. The scientists in the geology "backroom" relied on Schmitt's reports to adjust the tasks planned for that site, which would be transmitted to the CapCom and then to Cernan and Schmitt. According to William R. Muehlberger , one of
3078-449: A plan for extended lunar geological and astrophysical exploration. Budget cuts forced the cancellation of three of these. Five of the remaining six missions achieved successful landings, but the Apollo 13 landing had to be aborted after an oxygen tank exploded en route to the Moon, crippling the CSM. The crew barely managed a safe return to Earth by using the lunar module as a "lifeboat" on
3249-433: A professional geologist on matters within his field. Cernan also had to adjust for the loss of Engle, with whom he had trained for Apollo 14. In spite of these issues, Cernan and Schmitt worked well together as a team, and Cernan became adept at describing what he was seeing on geology field trips, and working independently of Schmitt when necessary. The landing crew aimed for a division of labor so that, when they arrived in
3420-404: A reaction control system. The initial LM model weighed approximately 33,300 pounds (15,100 kg), and allowed surface stays up to around 34 hours. An extended lunar module (ELM) weighed over 36,200 pounds (16,400 kg), and allowed surface stays of more than three days. The contract for design and construction of the lunar module was awarded to Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation , and
3591-547: A set of detectors to measure the characteristics of the dust particles it sought. It was hoped that the LEME would detect dust impacting the Moon from elsewhere, such as from comets or interstellar space, but analysis showed that it primarily detected dust moving at slow speeds across the lunar surface. All powered ALSEP experiments that remained active were deactivated on September 30, 1977, principally because of budgetary constraints. Like Apollo 15 and 16, Apollo 17 carried
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#17327797418133762-558: A spacecraft that could meet it while minimizing risk to human life, limiting cost, and not exceeding limits in possible technology and astronaut skill. Four possible mission modes were considered: In early 1961, direct ascent was generally the mission mode in favor at NASA. Many engineers feared that rendezvous and docking, maneuvers that had not been attempted in Earth orbit , would be nearly impossible in lunar orbit . LOR advocates including John Houbolt at Langley Research Center emphasized
3933-499: A three-person spacecraft to follow the one-person Project Mercury , which put the first Americans in space. Apollo was later dedicated to President John F. Kennedy 's national goal for the 1960s of "landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth" in an address to Congress on May 25, 1961. It was the third US human spaceflight program to fly, preceded by the two-person Project Gemini conceived in 1961 to extend spaceflight capability in support of Apollo. Kennedy's goal
4104-406: Is considered a test flight. The Apollo program included three other crewed missions: Apollo 1 (AS-204) did not launch and its crew died in a ground-based capsule fire, while Apollo 7 and Apollo 9 were low Earth orbit missions that only tested spacecraft components and docking maneuvers. Apollo missions 18, 19, and 20 were canceled . Twelve astronauts later flew unused Apollo command modules in
4275-508: Is nearly a vacuum. Administrator Webb realized that in order to keep Apollo costs under control, he had to develop greater project management skills in his organization, so he recruited George E. Mueller for a high management job. Mueller accepted, on the condition that he have a say in NASA reorganization necessary to effectively administer Apollo. Webb then worked with Associate Administrator (later Deputy Administrator) Seamans to reorganize
4446-535: Is to reach a position of leadership." His memo concluded that a crewed Moon landing was far enough in the future that it was likely the United States would achieve it first. On May 25, 1961, twenty days after the first US crewed spaceflight Freedom 7 , Kennedy proposed the crewed Moon landing in a Special Message to the Congress on Urgent National Needs : Now it is time to take longer strides—time for
4617-596: The Apollo Applications Program 's Skylab and Apollo–Soyuz Test Project . Of the 24 astronauts who flew to the Moon, two went on to command a Skylab mission, one commanded Apollo–Soyuz, one flew as commander for Approach and Landing Tests of the Space Shuttle , and two commanded orbital Space Shuttle missions. NASA's Director of Flight Crew Operations during the Gemini and Apollo programs
4788-616: The Apollo command and service module , succeeding the Mercury program . A lunar landing became the focus of the program only in 1961. Thereafter Project Gemini instead followed the Mercury program to test and study advanced crewed spaceflight technology. The Apollo program was conceived during the Eisenhower administration in early 1960, as a follow-up to Project Mercury. While the Mercury capsule could support only one astronaut on
4959-473: The SPS ." Ironically, just such a failure happened on Apollo 13 when an oxygen tank explosion left the CSM without electrical power. The lunar module provided propulsion, electrical power and life support to get the crew home safely. Faget's preliminary Apollo design employed a cone-shaped command module, supported by one of several service modules providing propulsion and electrical power, sized appropriately for
5130-540: The Saturn V launch vehicle and LOR by forcing Shea, Seamans, and even Webb to defend themselves, delaying its formal announcement to the press on July 11, 1962, and forcing Webb to still hedge the decision as "tentative". Wiesner kept up the pressure, even making the disagreement public during a two-day September visit by the President to Marshall Space Flight Center . Wiesner blurted out "No, that's no good" in front of
5301-526: The U.S. Air Force , so he got Webb's permission to recruit General Samuel C. Phillips , who gained a reputation for his effective management of the Minuteman program, as OMSF program controller. Phillips's superior officer Bernard A. Schriever agreed to loan Phillips to NASA, along with a staff of officers under him, on the condition that Phillips be made Apollo Program Director. Mueller agreed, and Phillips managed Apollo from January 1964, until it achieved
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5472-737: The White Sands Missile Range between May 1964 and January 1966. Saturn I, the first US heavy lift launch vehicle, was initially planned to launch partially equipped CSMs in low Earth orbit tests. The S-I first stage burned RP-1 with liquid oxygen (LOX) oxidizer in eight clustered Rocketdyne H-1 engines, to produce 1,500,000 pounds-force (6,670 kN) of thrust. The S-IV second stage used six liquid hydrogen-fueled Pratt & Whitney RL-10 engines with 90,000 pounds-force (400 kN) of thrust. The S-V third stage flew inactively on Saturn I four times. The first four Saturn I test flights were launched from LC-34, with only
5643-767: The fifth group of astronauts in 1966, and had been a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy. Schmitt, a civilian, was 37 years old when assigned Apollo 17, had a doctorate in geology from Harvard University , and had been selected in the fourth group of astronauts in 1965. Both Evans and Schmitt were making their first spaceflights. For the backup crews of Apollo 16 and 17, the final Apollo lunar missions, NASA selected astronauts who had already flown Apollo lunar missions, to take advantage of their experience, and avoid investing time and money in training rookies who would be unlikely to ever fly an Apollo mission. The original backup crew for Apollo 17, announced at
5814-450: The "5" indicating Saturn V. The three-stage Saturn V was designed to send a fully fueled CSM and LM to the Moon. It was 33 feet (10.1 m) in diameter and stood 363 feet (110.6 m) tall with its 96,800-pound (43,900 kg) lunar payload. Its capability grew to 103,600 pounds (47,000 kg) for the later advanced lunar landings. The S-IC first stage burned RP-1/LOX for a rated thrust of 7,500,000 pounds-force (33,400 kN), which
5985-451: The 1960s, President Kennedy's target date. The LOR method had the advantage of allowing the lander spacecraft to be used as a "lifeboat" in the event of a failure of the command ship. Some documents prove this theory was discussed before and after the method was chosen. In 1964 an MSC study concluded, "The LM [as lifeboat] ... was finally dropped, because no single reasonable CSM failure could be identified that would prohibit use of
6156-418: The 19th century sailing ships which were given that name, and was a thank-you to the people of the United States. The crew selected the name "Challenger" for the LM in lieu of an alternative, "Heritage". Cernan stated that the selected name "just seemed to describe more of what the future for America really held, and that was a challenge". After Schmitt stepped onto the Moon from Challenger , he stated, "I think
6327-399: The Apollo 13 astronauts, and, fearing another mission in crisis as he ran for re-election, initially decided to omit the funds for Apollo 17 from the budget; he was persuaded to accept a December 1972 date for the mission. Like Apollo 15 and 16, Apollo 17 was slated to be a " J-mission ", an Apollo mission type that featured lunar surface stays of three days, higher scientific capability, and
6498-455: The Apollo spacecraft and had more time for geology training. Launched at 12:33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on December 7, 1972, following the only launch-pad delay in the course of the whole Apollo program that was caused by a hardware problem, Apollo 17 was a "J-type" mission that included three days on the lunar surface, expanded scientific capability, and the use of the third Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). Cernan and Schmitt landed in
6669-415: The CSM and LM separated from it. The launch vehicle, SA-512, was one of fifteen Saturn V rockets built, and was the twelfth to fly. With a weight at launch of 6,529,784 pounds (2,961,860 kg) (116,269 pounds (52,739 kg) of which was attributable to the spacecraft), Apollo 17's vehicle was slightly lighter than Apollo 16, but heavier than every other crewed Apollo mission. The first piece of
6840-523: The CSM's role to the translunar ferry used to transport the crew, along with a new spacecraft, the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM, later shortened to LM (Lunar Module) but still pronounced / ˈ l ɛ m / ) which would take two individuals to the lunar surface and return them to the CSM. The command module (CM) was the conical crew cabin, designed to carry three astronauts from launch to lunar orbit and back to an Earth ocean landing. It
7011-630: The Canaveral launch facilities in Florida . The two newest launch complexes were already being built for the Saturn I and IB rockets at the northernmost end: LC-34 and LC-37 . But an even bigger facility would be needed for the mammoth rocket required for the crewed lunar mission, so land acquisition was started in July 1961 for a Launch Operations Center (LOC) immediately north of Canaveral at Merritt Island . The design, development and construction of
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7182-453: The Earth while the crew spent time monitoring and checking the spacecraft to ensure its readiness to depart Earth orbit. At 3:46 a.m. EST, the S-IVB third stage was reignited for the 351-second trans-lunar injection burn to propel the spacecraft towards the Moon. Ground controllers chose a faster trajectory for Apollo 17 than originally planned to allow the vehicle to reach lunar orbit at
7353-430: The Earth's atmosphere or return to Earth, its fuselage was designed totally without aerodynamic considerations and was of an extremely lightweight construction. It consisted of separate descent and ascent stages, each with its own engine. The descent stage contained storage for the descent propellant, surface stay consumables, and surface exploration equipment. The ascent stage contained the crew cabin, ascent propellant, and
7524-452: The Earth's internal structure, the objective of this experiment was to do the same on the Moon. The gravimeter was used to obtain relative gravity measurements at the landing site in the immediate vicinity of the lunar module, as well as various locations on the mission's traverse routes. Scientists would then use this data to help determine the geological substructure of the landing site and the surrounding vicinity. Measurements were taken while
7695-570: The Earth, Gilruth had moved his organization to rented space in Houston, and construction of the MSC facility was under way, Kennedy visited Rice to reiterate his challenge in a famous speech : But why, some say, the Moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask, why climb the highest mountain ? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic ? ... We choose to go to the Moon. We choose to go to
7866-546: The LM Falcon to a landing at Hadley Rille , Scott accomplished the only stand-up EVA through the lander's top hatch, using it as a high place from which to refine the geology traverses he and Irwin would undertake during the following days. Scott became the first to drive a vehicle on the Moon as he drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle , more than doubling Apollo 14's EVA time. After the final traverse, back outside
8037-507: The LM, Scott performed a demonstration of Galileo's theory that all objects fall at the same rate in vacuum by dropping a hammer and a feather for the television camera. Irwin came onto the lunar surface soon after his commander, Scott. As the LRV's first passenger, he had an often rough ride as Scott swerved to avoid craters. It was Irwin who, during the second EVA, first spotted the Genesis Rock and aided Scott in collecting this bit of
8208-495: The Lunar Neutron Probe was inserted into one of the holes drilled into the surface to collect core samples. It was designed to measure the quantity of neutrons which penetrated to the detectors it bore along its length. This was intended to measure the rate of the "gardening" process on the lunar surface, whereby the regolith on the surface is slowly mixed or buried due to micrometeorites and other events. Placed during
8379-613: The Moon by the end of 1969 required the most sudden burst of technological creativity, and the largest commitment of resources ($ 25 billion; $ 182 billion in 2023 US dollars) ever made by any nation in peacetime. At its peak, the Apollo program employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities. On July 1, 1960, NASA established the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama . MSFC designed
8550-477: The Moon during the Apollo 13 mission, but the lunar landing was aborted following a major malfunction en route to the Moon. Haise was again scheduled to walk on the Moon as commander of Apollo 19, but Apollo 18 and Apollo 19 were canceled on September 2, 1970. Because of Apollo 13's free-return trajectory, Lovell, Swigert and Haise flew higher above the Moon's 180° meridian (opposite Earth) than anyone else has flown (254 km/158 mi). Coincidentally, due to
8721-628: The Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills; because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win ... The MSC was completed in September 1963. It was renamed by the US Congress in honor of Lyndon Johnson soon after his death in 1973. It also became clear that Apollo would outgrow
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#17327797418138892-412: The Moon's distance from Earth at the time, they simultaneously set the present record for humans' greatest distance from Earth, reaching an altitude of 400,171 km (248,655 mi) above sea level at 0:21 UTC on 15 April 1970. Armstrong descended the lunar module ladder and spoke his famous epigram , "That's one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind." He then went to work on collecting
9063-461: The Moon, the last, Apollo 17 , in December 1972. In these six spaceflights, twelve people walked on the Moon . Apollo ran from 1961 to 1972, with the first crewed flight in 1968. It encountered a major setback in 1967 when an Apollo 1 cabin fire killed the entire crew during a prelaunch test. After the first successful landing, sufficient flight hardware remained for nine follow-on landings with
9234-661: The Moon. The mission's heavy emphasis on science meant the inclusion of a number of new experiments, including a biological experiment containing five mice that was carried in the command module. Mission planners had two primary goals in deciding on the landing site: to sample lunar highland material older than that at Mare Imbrium and to investigate the possibility of relatively recent volcanic activity . They therefore selected Taurus–Littrow , where formations that had been viewed and pictured from orbit were thought to be volcanic in nature. Since all three crew members had backed up previous Apollo lunar missions, they were familiar with
9405-405: The Moon. When they re-entered the lunar module Cernan stepped in last, and is therefore the last person to have walked on the Moon. Alan Shepard was the oldest person to walk on the Moon, at age 47 years and 80 days. Charles Duke was the youngest, at age 36 years and 201 days. Jim Lovell and Fred Haise were scheduled to walk on the Moon during the Apollo 13 mission, but the lunar landing
9576-591: The October Cuban Missile Crisis , and fear of Kennedy's support for Webb. NASA announced the selection of Grumman as the LEM contractor in November 1962. Space historian James Hansen concludes that: Without NASA's adoption of this stubbornly held minority opinion in 1962, the United States may still have reached the Moon, but almost certainly it would not have been accomplished by the end of
9747-815: The Office of Manned Space Flight (OMSF). On July 23, 1963, Webb announced Mueller's appointment as Deputy Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, to replace then Associate Administrator D. Brainerd Holmes on his retirement effective September 1. Under Webb's reorganization, the directors of the Manned Spacecraft Center ( Gilruth ), Marshall Space Flight Center ( von Braun ), and the Launch Operations Center ( Debus ) reported to Mueller. Based on his industry experience on Air Force missile projects, Mueller realized some skilled managers could be found among high-ranking officers in
9918-507: The Saturn V. The Saturn IB could send over 40,000 pounds (18,100 kg) into low Earth orbit, sufficient for a partially fueled CSM or the LM. Saturn IB launch vehicles and flights were designated with an AS-200 series number, "AS" indicating "Apollo Saturn" and the "2" indicating the second member of the Saturn rocket family. Saturn V launch vehicles and flights were designated with an AS-500 series number, "AS" indicating "Apollo Saturn" and
10089-518: The Soviet Union and the United States due to the inaction of President Eisenhower. Beyond military power, Kennedy used aerospace technology as a symbol of national prestige, pledging to make the US not "first but, first and, first if, but first period". Despite Kennedy's rhetoric, he did not immediately come to a decision on the status of the Apollo program once he became president. He knew little about
10260-453: The TGE was mounted on the LRV, and also while the device was placed on the lunar surface. A total of 26 measurements were taken with the TGE during the mission's three moonwalks, with productive results. The SEP was also unique to Apollo 17, and included two major components: a transmitting antenna deployed near the lunar module and a receiver mounted on the LRV. At different stops during the mission's traverses, electrical signals traveled from
10431-544: The Taurus–Littrow valley, completed three moonwalks , took lunar samples and deployed scientific instruments . Orange soil was discovered at Shorty crater ; it proved to be volcanic in origin, although from early in the Moon's history. Evans remained in lunar orbit in the command and service module (CSM), taking scientific measurements and photographs. The spacecraft returned to Earth on December 19. The mission broke several records for crewed spaceflight , including
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#173277974181310602-454: The aborted Apollo 13 mission, as well as on Apollo 15 and 16, but placed successfully only on Apollo 15, and unexpected results from that device made scientists anxious for a second successful emplacement. It was successfully deployed on Apollo 17. The lunar gravimeter was intended to detect wavers in gravity, which would provide support for Albert Einstein 's general theory of relativity ; it ultimately failed to function as intended. The LACE
10773-494: The accident was later attributed to pilot error, as Cernan had misjudged his altitude before crashing into the water. Jim McDivitt , who was manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office at the time, objected to Cernan's selection because of this accident, but Slayton dismissed the concern. After Cernan was offered command of the mission, he advocated for Engle to fly with him on the mission, but it
10944-445: The amount of the launch delay, with one hour of it at 45:00:00 into the mission and the remainder at 65:00:00. Among their other activities during the outbound trip, the crew photographed the Earth from the spacecraft as it travelled towards the Moon. One of these photographs is now known as The Blue Marble . The crew found that one of the latches holding the CSM and LM together was unlatched. While Schmitt and Cernan were engaged in
11115-417: The astronauts for Taurus–Littrow, which was not selected until February 1972, but by June, the astronauts were going on field trips to sites specifically selected to prepare for Apollo 17's landing site. Both Cernan and Schmitt had served on backup crews for Apollo landing missions, and were familiar with many of the procedures. Their trainers, such as Gordon Swann , feared that Cernan would defer to Schmitt as
11286-418: The astronauts left the Moon. When operating, it could only send useful data to Earth in high bit rate, meaning that no other ALSEP experiment could send data then, and limiting its operating time. It was turned on to detect the liftoff of the ascent stage, as well as use of the explosives packages, and the ascent stage's impact, and thereafter about once a week, as well as for some 100 hour periods. The LEME had
11457-514: The astronauts were on the Moon: they would be provided with aerial images and maps, and briefed on features of the site and a suggested routing. The following day, they would follow the route, and have tasks and observations to be done at each of the stops. The geology field trips began with one to Big Bend National Park in Texas in October 1971. The early ones were not specifically tailored to prepare
11628-442: The available evidence supports the hypothesis that these flashes occur when charged particles travel through the retina in the eye. Apollo 17 carried a sodium-iodide crystal identical to the ones in the gamma-ray spectrometer flown on Apollo 15 and 16. Data from this, once it was examined on Earth, was to be used to help form a baseline, allowing for subtraction of rays from the CM or from cosmic radiation to gain better data from
11799-429: The backup crew of Apollo 14 would be Gene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and former X-15 pilot Joe Engle . This put them in line to be the prime crew of Apollo 17, because the Apollo program's crew rotation generally meant that a backup crew would fly as prime crew three missions later. Harrison Schmitt, who was a professional geologist as well as an astronaut, had served on the backup crew of Apollo 15 , and thus, because of
11970-458: The backup crew would follow half an hour after the prime crew, performing identical tasks, and have their own simulated CapCom and Mission Control guiding them. The Apollo 17 astronauts had fourteen field trips—the Apollo 11 crew had only one. Evans did not go on the geology field trips, having his own set of trainers—by this time, geology training for the CMP was well-established. He would fly with
12141-496: The backup crew. The initial field trips took place before the Apollo 15 astronauts were assigned as the backup crew for Apollo 17 in February 1972. Either one or both of Scott and Irwin of Apollo 15 took part in four field trips, though both were present together for only two of them. After they were removed from the backup crew, the new backup commander and LMP, Young and Duke, took part in the final four field trips. On field trips,
12312-475: The cancellation of Apollo 18 and Apollo 19, leaving Gordon as the last Apollo astronaut to train extensively for lunar exploration without ever landing on the Moon. Besides the 12 people who have walked on the Moon, 12 more have flown to within 0.001 lunar distance of its surface. As of November 2024, two of them are alive with an average age of 93 years. During each of the six missions with successful lunar landings, one astronaut remained in lunar orbit while
12483-399: The cancellation of Apollo 20 in early 1970, NASA decided there would be no more than two Apollo missions per year. Part of the reason Apollo 17 was scheduled for December 1972 was to make it fall after the presidential election in November, ensuring that if there was a disaster, it would have no effect on President Richard Nixon 's re-election campaign. Nixon had been deeply concerned about
12654-472: The center was conducted by Kurt H. Debus , a member of Wernher von Braun 's original V-2 rocket engineering team. Debus was named the LOC's first Director. Construction began in November 1962. Following Kennedy's death , President Johnson issued an executive order on November 29, 1963, to rename the LOC and Cape Canaveral in honor of Kennedy. The LOC included Launch Complex 39 , a Launch Control Center , and
12825-426: The clear goal of a crewed landing replacing the more nebulous goals of space stations and circumlunar flights, NASA decided that, in order to make progress quickly, it would discard the feasibility study designs of Convair, GE, and Martin, and proceed with Faget's command and service module design. The mission module was determined to be useful only as an extra room, and therefore unnecessary. They used Faget's design as
12996-566: The color gold, representative of a "golden age" of spaceflight that was to begin with Apollo 17. The image of Apollo in the mission insignia is a rendering of the Apollo Belvedere sculpture in the Vatican Museums . It looks forward into the future, towards the celestial objects shown in the insignia beyond the Moon. These represent humanity's goals, and the image symbolizes human intelligence, wisdom and ambition. The insignia
13167-596: The contingency sample, which was a scoop of the lunar surface collected early in the mission in case there was an emergency. Armstrong took the TV camera off the lunar module and mounted it to a tripod. After that, Aldrin descended the ladder to join Armstrong. Aldrin egressed to the surface about nineteen minutes after Armstrong. They had some trouble planting the American flag into the lunar soil, but were able to secure it into
13338-449: The contract to build the CSM, and also the second stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle for NASA. Because the CSM design was started early before the selection of lunar orbit rendezvous, the service propulsion engine was sized to lift the CSM off the Moon, and thus was oversized to about twice the thrust required for translunar flight. Also, there was no provision for docking with the lunar module. A 1964 program definition study concluded that
13509-450: The crew members during the trip out to the Moon, back to Earth, and in lunar orbit. The Apollo 17 crew repeated an experiment, also conducted on Apollo 16, with the objective of linking these light flashes with cosmic rays . Evans wore a device over his eyes that recorded the time, strength, and path of high-energy atomic particles that penetrated the device, while the other two wore blindfolds to keep out light. Investigators concluded that
13680-668: The earlier results. In addition, the S-band transponders in the CSM and LM were pointed at the Moon to gain data on its gravitational field. Results from the Lunar Orbiter probes had revealed that lunar gravity varies slightly due to the presence of mass concentrations , or "mascons". Data from the missions, and from the lunar subsatellites left by Apollo 15 and 16 , were used to map such variations in lunar gravity. Originally planned to launch on December 6, 1972, at 9:53 p.m. EST (2:53 a.m. on December 7 UTC), Apollo 17
13851-411: The early lunar crust. A man of deep Christian religious faith, Irwin quoted from Psalms while on the lunar surface and later became an evangelist. In addition to the nine lunar missions, there were two crewed flights in the Apollo program that remained in Earth orbit to test fly the spacecraft. Apollo 7 was a crewed test flight of the CSM, and Apollo 9 was a crewed flight test of the CSM and LEM. Of
14022-439: The first EVA, it was retrieved during the third and final EVA. The astronauts brought it with them back to Earth, and the measurements from it were compared with the evidence of neutron flux in the core that had been removed from the hole it had been placed in. Results from the probe and from the cores were instrumental in current theories that the top centimeter of lunar regolith turns over every million years, whereas "gardening" to
14193-463: The first human landing in July 1969, after which he returned to Air Force duty. Charles Fishman, in One Giant Leap , estimated the number of people and organizations involved into the Apollo program as "410,000 men and women at some 20,000 different companies contributed to the effort". Once Kennedy had defined a goal, the Apollo mission planners were faced with the challenge of designing
14364-485: The first person to fly in space, reinforcing American fears about being left behind in a technological competition with the Soviet Union. At a meeting of the US House Committee on Science and Astronautics one day after Gagarin's flight, many congressmen pledged their support for a crash program aimed at ensuring that America would catch up. Kennedy was circumspect in his response to the news, refusing to make
14535-421: The first stage live, carrying dummy upper stages filled with water. The first flight with a live S-IV was launched from LC-37. This was followed by five launches of boilerplate CSMs (designated AS-101 through AS-105 ) into orbit in 1964 and 1965. The last three of these further supported the Apollo program by also carrying Pegasus satellites, which verified the safety of the translunar environment by measuring
14706-407: The five mice survived the flight, though only two of them appeared healthy and active; the cause of death of the fifth mouse was not determined. Of those that survived, the study found lesions in the scalp itself and, in one case, the liver. The scalp lesions and liver lesions appeared to be unrelated to one another; nothing was found that could be attributed to cosmic rays. The Biostack experiment
14877-445: The frequency and severity of micrometeorite impacts. In September 1962, NASA planned to launch four crewed CSM flights on the Saturn I from late 1965 through 1966, concurrent with Project Gemini. The 22,500-pound (10,200 kg) payload capacity would have severely limited the systems which could be included, so the decision was made in October 1963 to use the uprated Saturn IB for all crewed Earth orbital flights. The Saturn IB
15048-563: The funds for the necessary communications satellites. The three sites that made the final consideration for Apollo 17 were Alphonsus crater , Gassendi crater , and the Taurus–Littrow valley. In making the final landing site decision, mission planners considered the primary objectives for Apollo 17: obtaining old highlands material a substantial distance from Mare Imbrium, sampling material from young volcanic activity (i.e., less than three billion years), and having minimal ground overlap with
15219-452: The geological training of the lunar landing astronauts, as well as assisting in the analysis of returned samples and the preparation of mission reports. In 1970, he was selected as Lunar Module Pilot for the Apollo 15 backup crew, and prime crew on Apollo 18. When program cutbacks canceled missions 18 through 20, NASA's lunar geological community insisted on having a geologist on the Moon, so Slayton reassigned Schmitt to Apollo 17 . NASA named
15390-521: The ground while training for the first crewed Apollo mission, Apollo 1 . Apollo program The Apollo program , also known as Project Apollo , was the United States human spaceflight program carried out by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which succeeded in preparing and landing the first men on the Moon in 1969. It was first conceived in 1960 during President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration as
15561-508: The heavy lift-class Saturn launch vehicles , which would be required for Apollo. It became clear that managing the Apollo program would exceed the capabilities of Robert R. Gilruth 's Space Task Group , which had been directing the nation's crewed space program from NASA's Langley Research Center . So Gilruth was given authority to grow his organization into a new NASA center, the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC). A site
15732-488: The important weight reductions that were offered by the LOR approach. Throughout 1960 and 1961, Houbolt campaigned for the recognition of LOR as a viable and practical option. Bypassing the NASA hierarchy, he sent a series of memos and reports on the issue to Associate Administrator Robert Seamans; while acknowledging that he spoke "somewhat as a voice in the wilderness", Houbolt pleaded that LOR should not be discounted in studies of
15903-496: The initial design should be continued as Block I which would be used for early testing, while Block II, the actual lunar spacecraft, would incorporate the docking equipment and take advantage of the lessons learned in Block I development. The Apollo Lunar Module (LM) was designed to descend from lunar orbit to land two astronauts on the Moon and take them back to orbit to rendezvous with the command module. Not designed to fly through
16074-426: The landing site for Apollo 17. As with previous lunar landings, the Apollo 17 astronauts undertook an extensive training program that included learning to collect samples on the surface, usage of the spacesuits , navigation in the Lunar Roving Vehicle, field geology training, survival training, splashdown and recovery training, and equipment training. The geology field trips were conducted as much as possible as if
16245-686: The launch vehicle to arrive at Kennedy Space Center was the S-II second stage, on October 27, 1970; it was followed by the S-IVB on December 21; the S-IC first stage did not arrive until May 11, 1972, followed by the Instrument Unit on June 7. By then, LM-12 had arrived, the ascent stage on June 16, 1971, and the descent stage the following day; they were not mated until May 18, 1972. CM-114, SM-114 and SLA-21 all arrived on March 24, 1972. The rover reached Kennedy Space Center on June 2, 1972. The CM and
16416-412: The local terrain, and, though Alphonsus might be easier operationally than Taurus–Littrow, it was of lesser scientific interest. At Taurus–Littrow, it was believed that the crew would be able to obtain samples of old highland material from the remnants of a landslide event that occurred on the south wall of the valley and the possibility of relatively young, explosive volcanic activity in the area. Although
16587-450: The long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. At the time of Kennedy's proposal, only one American had flown in space—less than a month earlier—and NASA had not yet sent an astronaut into orbit. Even some NASA employees doubted whether Kennedy's ambitious goal could be met. By 1963, Kennedy even came close to agreeing to a joint US-USSR Moon mission, to eliminate duplication of effort. With
16758-508: The longest crewed lunar landing mission (12 days, 14 hours), greatest distance from a spacecraft during an extravehicular activity of any type (7.6 kilometers or 4.7 miles), longest time on the lunar surface (75 hours), longest total duration of lunar-surface extravehicular activities (22 hours, 4 minutes), largest lunar-sample return (approximately 115 kg or 254 lb), longest time in lunar orbit (6 days, 4 hours), and greatest number of lunar orbits (75). In 1969, NASA announced that
16929-510: The lunar flights. On the extended lunar missions, an orbital scientific instrument package was carried. The service module was discarded just before reentry. The module was 24.6 feet (7.5 m) long and 12.83 feet (3.91 m) in diameter. The initial lunar flight version weighed approximately 51,300 pounds (23,300 kg) fully fueled, while a later version designed to carry a lunar orbit scientific instrument package weighed just over 54,000 pounds (24,000 kg). North American Aviation won
17100-484: The lunar gravity field at the site, a Lunar Atmospheric Composition Experiment (LACE), to investigate what the lunar atmosphere is made up of, a Lunar Seismic Profiling Experiment (LSPE), to detect nearby seismic activity, and a Lunar Ejecta and Meteorites Experiment (LEME), to measure the velocity and energy of dust particles. Of these, only the HFE had been flown before; the others were new. The HFE had been flown on
17271-491: The military services and were considered to be on active duty during their NASA service. The few exceptions were considered civilian NASA astronauts, regardless of any prior military service. On the last of their three Apollo 17 EVAs, Harrison Schmitt stepped out of the Apollo Lunar Module onto the surface of the Moon after Gene Cernan , and is therefore the 12th and most recent person to have stepped out onto
17442-406: The mission's second day, the first full day in space, in order to adjust the crew's wake-up times for the subsequent days in preparation for an early morning (EST) wake-up time on the day of the lunar landing, then scheduled for early afternoon (EST). This was done since the first day of the mission had been extended because of the launch delay. Following the second rest period, and on the third day of
17613-453: The mission, the crew executed the first mid-course correction, a two-second burn of the CSM's service propulsion engine to adjust the spacecraft's Moon-bound trajectory. Following the burn, the crew opened the hatch separating the CSM and LM in order to check the LM's systems and concluded that they were nominal. So that events would take place at the time indicated in the flight plan, the mission clocks were moved ahead by 2 hours and 40 minutes,
17784-400: The next generation ought to accept this as a challenge. Let's see them leave footprints like these." Prior to the cancellation of Apollo 18 through 20, Apollo 17 was slated to launch in September 1971 as part of NASA's tentative launch schedule set forth in 1969. The in-flight abort of Apollo 13 and the resulting modifications to the Apollo spacecraft delayed subsequent missions. Following
17955-434: The objective of obtaining data to assist in developing a geological model of the interior of the Moon to an approximate depth of 1.3 km (0.81 mi). The infrared scanning radiometer was designed with the objective of generating a temperature map of the lunar surface to aid in locating surface features such as rock fields, structural differences in the lunar crust , and volcanic activity. The far-ultraviolet spectrometer
18126-448: The only people who have traveled beyond low Earth orbit . Jim Lovell , John Young , and Eugene Cernan are the only three people to have flown to the Moon twice. Young and Cernan each set foot on it during their respective second lunar missions, while Lovell is the only person to have flown to the Moon twice without landing. During Cernan's first lunar mission on Apollo 10, he tied the present record set by Bill Anders on Apollo 8 as
18297-530: The opportunity to fly a Moon mission. Of the seven rookies who flew Skylab, three of them ( Paul J. Weitz , Owen K. Garriott , and Jack R. Lousma ) would return to space aboard the Space Shuttle. Vance Brand flew on ASTP as Command Module Pilot and would command three Shuttle missions. Except for Garriott, all Apollo astronauts who also flew on the Shuttle served as commander. Three astronauts died on
18468-401: The orbital ground tracks of Apollo 15 and Apollo 16 to maximize the amount of new data obtained. A significant reason for the selection of Taurus–Littrow was that Apollo 15's CMP, Al Worden, had overflown the site and observed features he described as likely volcanic in nature. Gassendi was eliminated because NASA felt that its central peak would be difficult to reach due to the roughness of
18639-530: The order selected for flight. Two versions of the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) spacecraft were developed: Block I, intended for preliminary low Earth orbit testing; and Block II, redesigned for the lunar landing. The Block I crew position titles were Command Pilot, Senior Pilot (second seat), and Pilot (third seat). The corresponding Block II titles were: Commander, Command Module Pilot, and Lunar Module Pilot. The second seat pilot
18810-484: The originally planned launch time of 9:53 p.m. on December 6, remained open until 1:31 a.m., the latest time at which a launch could have occurred during the December 6–7 window. Approximately 500,000 people observed the launch in the immediate vicinity of Kennedy Space Center, despite the early-morning hour. The launch was visible as far away as 800 km (500 mi), and observers in Miami, Florida , reported
18981-465: The other two landed once apiece. Apart from these 24 men, no human being has gone beyond low Earth orbit . As of June 2024, 6 of the 24 remain alive. No woman has been to the Moon, but a number of non-human animals have circled or orbited it, including two tortoises , several turtles , and five mice . Apollo missions 8 and 10 – 17 were the nine crewed missions to the Moon. Apollo 4 – 6 and AS-201 and AS-202 were uncrewed, while AS-203
19152-405: The other two landed. In addition, the three-person crews of Apollo 8 and Apollo 10 also entered lunar orbit, and the crew of Apollo 13 looped around the Moon on a free-return trajectory . All nine crewed missions to the Moon took place as part of the Apollo program over a period of just under four years, from 21 December 1968 to 19 December 1972. The 24 people who have flown to the Moon are
19323-488: The panoramic and mapping cameras, which were also in the SIM bay. Beginning with Apollo 11, crew members observed light flashes that penetrated their closed eyelids. These flashes, described by the astronauts as "streaks" or "specks" of light, were usually observed while the spacecraft was darkened during a sleep period. These flashes, while not observed on the lunar surface, would average about two per minute and were observed by
19494-419: The planned time, despite the launch delay. The Command and Service Module separated from the S-IVB approximately half an hour following the S-IVB trans-lunar injection burn, after which Evans turned the spacecraft to face the LM, still attached to the S-IVB. The CSM then docked with the LM and extracted it from the S-IVB. Following the LM extraction, Mission Control programmed the S-IVB, no longer needed to propel
19665-483: The press, during a presentation by von Braun. Webb jumped in and defended von Braun, until Kennedy ended the squabble by stating that the matter was "still subject to final review". Webb held firm and issued a request for proposal to candidate Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) contractors. Wiesner finally relented, unwilling to settle the dispute once and for all in Kennedy's office, because of the President's involvement with
19836-458: The program Apollo had a one-sentence job description, "The flight director may take any actions necessary for crew safety and mission success." Capsule communicators (CAPCOMs) were Fullerton, Parker, Young, Duke, Mattingly, Roosa, Alan Shepard and Joseph P. Allen . The insignia's most prominent feature is an image of the Greek sun god Apollo backdropped by a rendering of an American eagle ,
20007-556: The project was overseen by Thomas J. Kelly . Before the Apollo program began, Wernher von Braun and his team of rocket engineers had started work on plans for very large launch vehicles, the Saturn series , and the even larger Nova series. In the midst of these plans, von Braun was transferred from the Army to NASA and was made Director of the Marshall Space Flight Center. The initial direct ascent plan to send
20178-519: The question. Seamans's establishment of an ad hoc committee headed by his special technical assistant Nicholas E. Golovin in July 1961, to recommend a launch vehicle to be used in the Apollo program, represented a turning point in NASA's mission mode decision. This committee recognized that the chosen mode was an important part of the launch vehicle choice, and recommended in favor of a hybrid EOR-LOR mode. Its consideration of LOR—as well as Houbolt's ceaseless work—played an important role in publicizing
20349-415: The red bars on the eagle mirroring those on the U.S. flag . Three white stars above the red bars represent the three crewmembers of the mission. The background includes the Moon, the planet Saturn , and a galaxy or nebula. The wing of the eagle partially overlays the Moon, suggesting humanity's established presence there. The insignia includes, along with the colors of the U.S. flag (red, white, and blue),
20520-555: The return journey. Apollo used the Saturn family of rockets as launch vehicles, which were also used for an Apollo Applications Program , which consisted of Skylab , a space station that supported three crewed missions in 1973–1974, and the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project, a joint United States - Soviet Union low Earth orbit mission in 1975. Apollo set several major human spaceflight milestones . It stands alone in sending crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit . Apollo 8
20691-436: The rollout, during which the prime crew joined the operating crew from Bendix atop the crawler. At Pad 39-A, testing continued, and the CSM was electrically mated to the launch vehicle on October 11, 1972. Testing concluded with the countdown demonstration tests, accomplished on November 20 and 21. The countdown to launch began at 7:53 a.m. (12:53 UTC) on December 5, 1972. The Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package
20862-436: The rotation, would have been due to fly as lunar module pilot on Apollo 18. In September 1970, the plan to launch Apollo 18 was cancelled . The scientific community pressed NASA to assign a geologist, rather than a pilot with non-professional geological training, to an Apollo landing. NASA subsequently assigned Schmitt to Apollo 17 as the lunar module pilot. After that, NASA's director of flight crew operations, Deke Slayton ,
21033-514: The same time as the prime crew, was the crew of Apollo 15: David Scott as commander, Alfred Worden as CMP and James Irwin as LMP, but in May 1972 they were removed from the backup crew because of their roles in the Apollo 15 postal covers incident . They were replaced with the landing crew of Apollo 16: John W. Young as backup crew commander, Charles Duke as LMP, and Apollo 14's CMP, Stuart Roosa . Originally, Apollo 16's CMP, Ken Mattingly ,
21204-406: The same time, this marked the first time NASA had three launch vehicles there since the height of the Apollo program in 1969. After the spacecraft was mounted on the launch vehicle on August 24, it was rolled out to Pad 39-A on August 28. Although this was not the final time a Saturn V would fly (another would lift Skylab to orbit), area residents reacted as though it was, and 5,000 of them watched
21375-442: The scientific instrument module (SIM) bay. The SIM bay housed three new experiments for use in lunar orbit: a lunar sounder, an infrared scanning radiometer , and a far-ultraviolet spectrometer. A mapping camera, panoramic camera, and a laser altimeter , which had been carried previously, were also included in the SIM bay. The lunar sounder was to beam electromagnetic impulses toward the lunar surface, which were designed with
21546-408: The scientists who trained the astronauts, "In effect [Schmitt] was running the mission from the Moon. But we set it up this way. All of those within the geological world certainly knew it, and I had a sneaking hunch that the top brass knew it too, but this is a practical way out, and they didn't object." Also participating in some of the geology field trips were the commander and lunar module pilot of
21717-479: The service module (SM) were mated on March 28, 1972, and the testing of the spacecraft began that month. The CSM was placed in a vacuum chamber at Kennedy Space Center, and the testing was conducted under those conditions. The LM was also placed in a vacuum chamber; both the prime and the backup crews participated in testing the CSM and LM. During the testing, it was discovered that the LM's rendezvous radar assembly had received too much voltage during earlier tests; it
21888-485: The six astronauts who participated in these missions, five were never rotated to a lunar mission. In addition, the three Skylab missions and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project used crewed CSMs in Earth orbit and are considered part of the Apollo Applications Project . Although Conrad, Bean, and Stafford commanded three of these four flights, the remaining crew members were rookies and thus had long missed
22059-407: The sixth and most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit . Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on the Moon, while Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans orbited above. Schmitt was the only professional geologist to land on the Moon; he was selected in place of Joe Engle , as NASA had been under pressure to send a scientist to
22230-400: The space station, cislunar, and lunar landing missions. Once Kennedy's Moon landing goal became official, detailed design began of a command and service module (CSM) in which the crew would spend the entire direct-ascent mission and lift off from the lunar surface for the return trip, after being soft-landed by a larger landing propulsion module. The final choice of lunar orbit rendezvous changed
22401-401: The spacecraft, to impact the Moon and trip the seismometers left by prior Apollo crews. It struck the Moon just under 87 hours into the mission, triggering the seismometers from Apollo 12, 14, 15 and 16. Approximately nine hours after launch, the crew concluded the mission's first day with a sleep period, until waking up to begin the second day. Mission Control and the crew decided to shorten
22572-452: The specification for another competition for spacecraft procurement bids in October 1961. On November 28, 1961, it was announced that North American Aviation had won the contract, although its bid was not rated as good as the Martin proposal. Webb, Dryden and Robert Seamans chose it in preference due to North American's longer association with NASA and its predecessor . Landing humans on
22743-402: The support crew. Their role was to provide any assistance in preparing for the missions that the missions director assigned then. Preparations took place in meetings at facilities across the US and sometimes needed a member of the flight crew to attend them. Because McDivitt was concerned that problems could be created if a prime or backup crew member was unable to attend a meeting, Slayton created
22914-501: The support crews to ensure that someone would be able to attend in their stead. Usually low in seniority, they also assembled the mission's rules, flight plan and checklists, and kept them updated; for Apollo 17, they were Robert F. Overmyer , Robert A. Parker and C. Gordon Fullerton . Flight directors were Gerry Griffin , first shift, Gene Kranz and Neil B. Hutchinson, second shift, and Pete Frank and Charles R. Lewis, third shift. According to Kranz, flight directors during
23085-432: The surface. Aldrin positioned himself in front of a video camera and began experimenting with different locomotion techniques on the surface. During these experiments, Armstrong and Aldrin received a phone call from President Nixon, congratulating them for the successful landing. Aldrin then set to work documenting the condition of the spacecraft to ensure it was in proper condition for their upcoming launch. After setting up
23256-515: The tank to pressurize, the sequencer did not recognize the fix and therefore paused the countdown. The clock was reset and held at the T-22 minute mark while technicians worked around the malfunction in order to continue with the launch. This pause was the only launch delay in the Apollo program caused by a hardware problem. The countdown then resumed, and the liftoff occurred at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972. The launch window, which had begun at
23427-427: The technical details of the space program, and was put off by the massive financial commitment required by a crewed Moon landing. When Kennedy's newly appointed NASA Administrator James E. Webb requested a 30 percent budget increase for his agency, Kennedy supported an acceleration of NASA's large booster program but deferred a decision on the broader issue. On April 12, 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became
23598-940: The three-person Apollo command and service module directly to the lunar surface, on top of a large descent rocket stage, would require a Nova-class launcher, with a lunar payload capability of over 180,000 pounds (82,000 kg). The June 11, 1962, decision to use lunar orbit rendezvous enabled the Saturn V to replace the Nova, and the MSFC proceeded to develop the Saturn rocket family for Apollo. Since Apollo, like Mercury, used more than one launch vehicle for space missions, NASA used spacecraft-launch vehicle combination series numbers: AS-10x for Saturn I, AS-20x for Saturn IB, and AS-50x for Saturn V (compare Mercury-Redstone 3 , Mercury-Atlas 6 ) to designate and plan all missions, rather than numbering them sequentially as in Project Gemini. This
23769-498: The transmitting device, through the ground, and were received at the LRV. The electrical properties of the lunar regolith could be determined by comparison of the transmitted and received electrical signals. The results of this experiment, which are consistent with lunar rock composition, show that there is almost no water in the area of the Moon in which Apollo 17 landed, to a depth of 2 km (1.2 mi). A 2.4 m (7.9 ft) long, 2 cm (0.79 in) diameter device,
23940-458: The usage of the Lunar Roving Vehicle. Since Apollo 17 was to be the final lunar landing of the Apollo program, high-priority landing sites that had not been visited previously were given consideration for potential exploration. Some sites were rejected at earlier stages. For instance, a landing in the crater Copernicus was rejected because Apollo 12 had already obtained samples from that impact, and three other Apollo expeditions had already visited
24111-509: The valley is similar to the landing site of Apollo 15 in that it is on the border of a lunar mare , the advantages of Taurus–Littrow were believed to outweigh the drawbacks. The Apollo Site Selection Board, a committee of NASA personnel and scientists charged with setting out scientific objectives of the Apollo landing missions and selecting landing sites for them, unanimously recommended Taurus–Littrow at its final meeting in February 1972. Upon that recommendation, NASA selected Taurus–Littrow as
24282-412: The vicinity of Mare Imbrium , near the rim of which Copernicus is located. The lunar highlands near the crater Tycho were rejected because of the rough terrain that the astronauts would encounter there. A site on the lunar far side in the crater Tsiolkovskiy was rejected due to technical considerations and the operational costs of maintaining communication with Earth during surface operations. Lastly,
24453-430: The workability of the approach. In late 1961 and early 1962, members of the Manned Spacecraft Center began to come around to support LOR, including the newly hired deputy director of the Office of Manned Space Flight, Joseph Shea , who became a champion of LOR. The engineers at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), who were heavily invested in direct ascent, took longer to become convinced of its merits, but their conversion
24624-437: The youngest person to fly to the Moon. Each was 35 years and 65 days old on his launch date and 35 years and 68 days old when he entered lunar orbit. The oldest person to fly to the Moon was Alan Shepard , who walked on its surface during the Apollo 14 mission. Shepard was 47 years and 74 days old on his launch date and 47 years and 78 days old when he entered lunar orbit. Jim Lovell and Fred Haise were scheduled to walk on
24795-519: Was Donald K. "Deke" Slayton , one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts, who was medically grounded in September 1962 due to a minor cardiac arrhythmia – paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Slayton was responsible for making all Gemini and Apollo crew assignments. In March 1972, Slayton was restored to flight status, and flew on the 1975 Apollo–Soyuz Test Project mission. The prime crew members selected for actual missions are here grouped by their NASA astronaut selection groups, and within each group in
24966-482: Was 11.42 feet (3.48 m) tall, 12.83 feet (3.91 m) in diameter, and weighed approximately 12,250 pounds (5,560 kg). A cylindrical service module (SM) supported the command module, with a service propulsion engine and an RCS with propellants, and a fuel cell power generation system with liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen reactants. A high-gain S-band antenna was used for long-distance communications on
25137-459: Was a suite of nuclear-powered experiments, flown on each landing mission after Apollo 11. This equipment was to be emplaced by the astronauts to continue functioning after the astronauts returned to Earth. For Apollo 17, the ALSEP experiments were a Heat Flow Experiment (HFE), to measure the rate of heat flow from the interior of the Moon, a Lunar Surface Gravimeter (LSG), to measure alterations in
25308-545: Was a surface-deployed module that used a mass spectrometer to analyze the Moon's atmosphere. On previous missions, the Code Cathode Gauge experiment had measured the quantity of atmospheric particles, but the LACE determined which gases were present: principally neon, helium and hydrogen. The LSPE was a seismic-detecting device that used geophones , which would detect explosives to be set off by ground command once
25479-557: Was aborted following an explosion in the spacecraft service module en route to the Moon. Haise was again scheduled to walk on the Moon as commander of Apollo 19, but Apollo 18 and Apollo 19 were canceled on September 2, 1970. Joe Engle had trained on the backup crew for Apollo 14 to explore the Moon with Cernan, but he was replaced by Schmitt on the primary crew for Apollo 17 . Schmitt had previously been crewed with Apollo 12 Command Module pilot Dick Gordon in anticipation of Apollo 18, but Schmitt replaced Engle on Apollo 17 after
25650-471: Was accomplished on the Apollo 11 mission when astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed their Apollo Lunar Module (LM) on July 20, 1969, and walked on the lunar surface, while Michael Collins remained in lunar orbit in the command and service module (CSM), and all three landed safely on Earth in the Pacific Ocean on July 24. Five subsequent Apollo missions also landed astronauts on
25821-567: Was an upgraded version of the Saturn I. The S-IB first stage increased the thrust to 1,600,000 pounds-force (7,120 kN) by uprating the H-1 engine. The second stage replaced the S-IV with the S-IVB-200 , powered by a single J-2 engine burning liquid hydrogen fuel with LOX, to produce 200,000 pounds-force (890 kN ) of thrust. A restartable version of the S-IVB was used as the third stage of
25992-497: Was announced by Wernher von Braun at a briefing on June 7, 1962. But even after NASA reached internal agreement, it was far from smooth sailing. Kennedy's science advisor Jerome Wiesner , who had expressed his opposition to human spaceflight to Kennedy before the President took office, and had opposed the decision to land people on the Moon, hired Golovin, who had left NASA, to chair his own "Space Vehicle Panel", ostensibly to monitor, but actually to second-guess NASA's decisions on
26163-606: Was changed by the time human flights began. Since Apollo, like Mercury, would require a launch escape system (LES) in case of a launch failure, a relatively small rocket was required for qualification flight testing of this system. A rocket bigger than the Little Joe used by Mercury would be required, so the Little Joe II was built by General Dynamics / Convair . After an August 1963 qualification test flight , four LES test flights ( A-001 through 004 ) were made at
26334-460: Was chosen because it was well-documented, small, easy to maintain in an isolated state (not requiring drinking water during the mission and with highly concentrated waste), and for its ability to withstand environmental stress. Officially, the mice—four male and one female—were assigned the identification numbers A3326, A3400, A3305, A3356 and A3352. Unofficially, according to Cernan, the Apollo 17 crew dubbed them Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey. Four of
26505-546: Was chosen in Houston , Texas, on land donated by Rice University , and Administrator Webb announced the conversion on September 19, 1961. It was also clear NASA would soon outgrow its practice of controlling missions from its Cape Canaveral Air Force Station launch facilities in Florida, so a new Mission Control Center would be included in the MSC. In September 1962, by which time two Project Mercury astronauts had orbited
26676-401: Was designed by artist Robert McCall , based on ideas from the crew. In deciding the call signs for the command module (CM) and lunar module (LM), the crew wished to pay tribute to the American public for their support of the Apollo program, and to the mission, and wanted names with a tradition within American history. The CM was given the call sign "America". According to Cernan, this evoked
26847-446: Was given secondary responsibility for celestial navigation to keep the CSM's guidance computer accurately calibrated with the spacecraft's true position, and the third seat pilot served as a flight engineer, monitoring the health of the spacecraft systems. All of these astronauts flew on Gemini, and except for White, each commanded one Gemini and one Apollo mission: This was the first class of astronauts for which test pilot experience
27018-546: Was left with the question of who would fill the two other Apollo 17 slots: the rest of the Apollo 15 backup crew ( Dick Gordon and Vance Brand ), or Cernan and Evans from the Apollo 14 backup crew. Slayton ultimately chose Cernan and Evans. Support at NASA for assigning Cernan was not unanimous. Cernan had crashed a Bell 47G helicopter into the Indian River near Cape Kennedy during a training exercise in January 1971;
27189-616: Was made clear to him that Schmitt would be assigned instead, with or without Cernan, so he acquiesced. The prime crew of Apollo 17 was publicly announced on August 13, 1971. When assigned to Apollo 17, Cernan was a 38-year-old captain in the United States Navy ; he had been selected in the third group of astronauts in 1963, and flown as pilot of Gemini 9A in 1966 and as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in 1969 before he served on Apollo 14's backup crew. Evans, 39 years old when assigned to Apollo 17, had been selected as part of
27360-740: Was moved into the Vehicle Assembly Building in August for further testing, after which it was mounted on the launch vehicle. After completing testing, including a simulated mission, the LRV was placed in the LM on August 13. Erection of the stages of the launch vehicle began on May 15, 1972, in High Bay 3 of the Vehicle Assembly Building, and was completed on June 27. Since the launch vehicles for Skylab 1 and Skylab 2 were being processed in that building at
27531-526: Was named after Apollo , the Greek god of light, music, and the Sun, by NASA manager Abe Silverstein , who later said, "I was naming the spacecraft like I'd name my baby." Silverstein chose the name at home one evening, early in 1960, because he felt "Apollo riding his chariot across the Sun was appropriate to the grand scale of the proposed program". The context of this was that the program focused at its beginning mainly on developing an advanced crewed spacecraft,
27702-489: Was not required, but military jet fighter pilot experience was acceptable. Five of this group got their first spaceflight experience as second seat on Gemini: The remaining six members of this group were selected for their first space flights on Apollo: In June 1965, NASA named a group of five scientist astronauts, the first group qualified by doctorate degrees rather than test or military fighter pilot experience. Geologist Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt participated heavily in
27873-427: Was replaced by the manufacturer, Grumman . The LM's landing radar also malfunctioned intermittently and was also replaced. The front and rear steering motors of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) also had to be replaced, and it required several modifications. Following the July 1972 removal from the vacuum chamber, the LM's landing gear was installed, and it, the CSM and the SLA were mated to each other. The combined craft
28044-492: Was similar to one carried on Apollo 16, and was designed to test the effects of the cosmic rays encountered in space travel on microorganisms that were included, on seeds, and on the eggs of simple animals ( brine shrimp and beetles), which were carried in a sealed container. After the mission, the microorganisms and seeds showed little effect, but many of the eggs of all species failed to hatch, or to mature normally; many died or displayed abnormalities. The Apollo 17 SM contained
28215-505: Was the final crewed Saturn V launch, and the only one to occur at night. The launch was delayed by two hours and forty minutes due to an automatic cutoff in the launch sequencer at the T-30 second mark in the countdown. The cause of the problem was quickly determined to be the launch sequencer's failure to automatically pressurize the liquid oxygen tank in the third stage of the rocket; although launch control noticed this and manually caused
28386-662: Was the first crewed spacecraft to orbit another celestial body, and Apollo 11 was the first crewed spacecraft to land humans on one. Overall, the Apollo program returned 842 pounds (382 kg) of lunar rocks and soil to Earth, greatly contributing to the understanding of the Moon's composition and geological history. The program laid the foundation for NASA's subsequent human spaceflight capability and funded construction of its Johnson Space Center and Kennedy Space Center . Apollo also spurred advances in many areas of technology incidental to rocketry and human spaceflight, including avionics , telecommunications, and computers. The program
28557-403: Was the only component of the Apollo spacecraft to survive without major configuration changes as the program evolved from the early Apollo study designs. Its exterior was covered with an ablative heat shield , and had its own reaction control system (RCS) engines to control its attitude and steer its atmospheric entry path. Parachutes were carried to slow its descent to splashdown. The module
28728-426: Was to be assigned along with his crewmates, but he declined so he could spend more time with his family, his son having just been born, and instead took an assignment to the Space Shuttle program. Roosa had also served as backup CMP for Apollo 16. For the Apollo program, in addition to the prime and backup crews that had been used in the Mercury and Gemini programs, NASA assigned a third crew of astronauts, known as
28899-412: Was to be used to obtain information on the composition, density, and constituency of the lunar atmosphere . The spectrometer was also designed to detect far-UV radiation emitted by the Sun that had been reflected off the lunar surface. The laser altimeter was designed to measure the altitude of the spacecraft above the lunar surface within approximately 2 meters (6.6 feet), providing altitude information to
29070-451: Was trained in lunar geology by Farouk El-Baz late in the training cycle; this continued until close to launch. The CMP was given information regarding the lunar features he would overfly in the CSM and which he was expected to photograph. The Apollo 17 spacecraft comprised CSM-114 (consisting of Command Module 114 (CM-114) and Service Module 114 (SM-114)); Lunar Module 12 (LM-12); a Spacecraft-Lunar Module Adapter (SLA) numbered SLA-21; and
29241-440: Was upgraded to 7,610,000 pounds-force (33,900 kN). The second and third stages burned liquid hydrogen; the third stage was a modified version of the S-IVB, with thrust increased to 230,000 pounds-force (1,020 kN) and capability to restart the engine for translunar injection after reaching a parking orbit . Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the eleventh and final mission of NASA 's Apollo program ,
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