History Book: A mission to the moon

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Monday, December 5th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Nick Eicher.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. Next up: the WORLD History Book. Today, the last Apollo mission to the moon—50 years ago this week. Here’s Paul Butler.

PAUL BUTLER, REPORTER: As NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission begins its return to the earth this week, we return to Cape Kennedy on December 7th, 1972:

AUDIO: All engines are started. We have ignition… 2-1-0. We have we have a lift off and it's lighting up the area. It’s just like daylight here at Kennedy Space Center. The Saturn V is moving off the pad. It has now cleared the tower…

After a three hour launch delay, Apollo 17 lifts off at 12:33 a.m. EST. Three astronauts and five mice sit atop the large Saturn V rocket. CBS’s Walter Cronkite anchor’s the late night television coverage of the launch.

CRONKITE: Well, now we've got them on the way to the moon: Commander Eugene Cernan, Navy Captain 38 years old veteran of two space flights. And two space rookies…Dr. Harrison Jack Schmitt, a geologist, 37 years old, and the spacecraft commander who will remain with the command module America: Ron Evans, a 39 year old commander in the Navy and a Vietnam veteran, the first one to go into space…

And so the mice don’t feel left out, their names—given to them by the astronauts—are Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey.

CRONKITE: The astronauts are now successfully in their Earth orbit…And now their next big mission…comes along at …3:34 this morning…when they will fire off their S4B engine again and start on their trip to the moon…

NASA’s Apollo 17 is the eleventh manned space mission in the program—and the first night launch of a U.S. human spaceflight. Vice President Agnew is on hand in the control room. He congratulates the NASA staff and Apollo 17 crew shortly after lift-off.

AGNEW: A lot of people seem to believe that this being the last Apollo marks the end of our space program. That is not the case. We hope that this will be only the beginning of more extensive explorations of space, and the use of the great collateral information that comes out of it.

While in orbit around the earth, the crew snaps one of the most famous images of the planet—often called The Blue Marble.

It takes three days to reach the moon. The astronauts conduct experiments, inspect the equipment, and test all the spacecraft systems.

The Apollo 17 crew arrives at the moon on December 10th. While Evans stays behind in the orbiter named “America,” Schmitt and Cernan head to the moon’s surface for three 7-hour moonwalks.

AUDIO: MOON LANDING

The lunar crew lands in the Taurus-Littrow valley—surrounded by 7000 foot mountains.

AUDIO: MOONWALK

With the help of their electric lunar module, the crew covers some 21 miles over the three days. During that time they set up the largest array of lunar surface experiments and sensors to date. The astronauts collect more than 100 pounds of lunar rocks and material. Standing next to the planted American flag, Eugene Cernan dedicates one of the lunar rocks to the nations of the world:

CERNAN: The rock is composed of many fragments, of many sizes, and many shapes. When we return this rock, or some of the others like it to Houston, we'd like to share a piece of this rock with so many of the countries throughout the world…

Apollo 17 marks the end of the $25 billion mission to the moon. It is the last human lunar landing. It is a momentous occasion.

Neil Armstrong was the first man on the moon—speaking one of the most famous lines in American history. Here at the end, Commander Cernan gets the final word:

CERNAN: 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."

The lunar crew reunites with the orbiter on December 14th and spends a few hours transferring equipment and lunar samples. They then begin the three day return trip to the earth. They re-enter the earths’ atmosphere on December 19th and splash down in the Pacific Ocean — six days before Christmas. Oh, and in case you were curious, four of the five mice survived the flight—though only two were healthy.

AUDIO: SPLASHDOWN

Keith Wright was one of the system engineers that worked on the lunar scientific equipment. In 2018 he summed up the value of the lunar missions this way in a documentary for Real Stories:

WRIGHT: Before we went to the moon, all we knew about it was what we could get from telescopes. Getting to the moon—being able to bring samples back, to be able to make measurements of its atmosphere, its magnetic field, what its structure was—taught us a lot, not only about the moon, but how the Earth and the Moon were created.

The Artemis missions pick up where Apollo left off. While NASA leads the effort to return humans to the moon and establish a long-term outpost there, the international collaboration intends to send mankind on to Mars and, God willing, beyond.

That’s this week’s WORLD History Book. I’m Paul Butler.

WORLD Radio transcripts are created on a rush deadline. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of WORLD Radio programming is the audio record.