Saturn Apollo Program

This is a breathtaking moonlit view of Apollo 17 on the Launch Pad at Kennedy Space Flight Center (KSC). The seventh and last manned lunar landing and return to Earth mission, the Apollo 17, carrying a crew of three astronauts: Mission Commander Eugene A. Cernan, Lunar Module pilot Harrison H. Schmitt, and Command Module pilot Ronald E. Evans, lifted off on December 7, 1972. The basic objective of the Apollo 17 mission was to sample basin-rim highland material and adjacent mare material, and investigate the geological evolutionary relationship between these two major units. The mission marked the longest Apollo mission, 504 hours, and the longest lunar surface stay time, 75 hours, which allowed the astronauts to conduct an extensive geological investigation. They collected 257 pounds (117 kilograms) of lunar samples with the use of the Marshall Space Flight Center designed Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). The mission ended on December 19, 1972