Apollo 17 launched 43 years ago with the crew of the last men to land on the Moon. Their legacy, and the future of Moon missions, is still being written.
Just after midnight on December 7 , 1972 , Apollo 17 launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral , Florida . On board were the last homo to land on the Moon .
NASA ’s first dark launching carry a three - valet de chambre team of astronauts : Eugene Cernan , Harrison “ Jack ” Schmitt and Ronald Evans . Cernan and Schmitt explored the lunar open for three days while Evans kept the command module “ America ” in lunar orbit . The crew was tax with the missionof geologically surveying and try out a antecedently unexamined area of the Moon – the Taurus - Littrow valley – for evidence of other lunar volcanic activity .
Eugene Cernan riding the Lunar Rover during on the last manned mission to the Moon .
Eugene Cernan riding the Lunar Rover during on the last manned mission to the Moon.
Schmitt was a Harvard - civilise geologist and the first professional scientist NASA launch into outer space . His three days on the Moon ’s surface with Cernan were the long in history .
The team also brought back the largest lunar sample , spent the longest time in lunar orbit , and fill in the farsighted manned lunar landing flight . Most significantly , however , they discovered microscopic orange looking glass beading – proof of the Moon ’s volcanic story .
The very low likelihood of another government - funded human mission to the Moon means those records are poised to persist for the indefinite future . Schmitt , however , believe his mission wo n’t always be the last .
“ Somebody will [ return to the moon ] , it make too much sense,”Schmitt told SPACE . “ Now , humankind has been able-bodied to push aside common sentience in other circumstances . But when it comes to geographic expedition , there really is a lineal or indirect insistency on humans to carry on . ”
