Apollo 17

Apollo 17 was the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program. It was the first night launch of a US human spaceflight and the sixth and final lunar landing mission of the Apollo program. The mission was launched at 12:33 a.m. EST on December 7, 1972, and concluded on December 19. It remains both the most recent manned moon landing and manned flight beyond low earth orbit. It also broke several records set by previous flights, including longest manned lunar landing flight; longest total lunar surface extravehicular activities; largest lunar sample return, and longest time in lunar orbit.
During the transit to the Moon, the astronauts took a famous photograph of the earth known as " The Blue Marble", which shows almost the entire continent of Africa and the continent of Antarctica. The other lunar landing missions that photographed the earth shortly after lunar orbit insertion showed the western hemisphere.
The landing site for this mission was on the southeastern rim of the Mare Serenitatis, in the southwestern Montes Taurus. This was a dark mantle between three high, steep massifs, in an area known as the Taurus-Littrow region. Pre-mission photographs showed boulders deposited along the bases of the mountains, which could provide bedrock samples. The area also contained a landslide, several impact craters, and some dark craters which could be volcanic.
Apollo 17 was a J-class mission. The crew used a Lunar Rover and conducted three lunar surface excursions, lasting 7.2, 7.6 and 7.3 hours. The mission returned 110.5 lb (50.1 kg) of samples from the Moon.
Schmitt and Cernan collected a record 109 lb (49 kg) of rocks during three Moonwalks. The crew roamed for 34 km (21 mi) through the Taurus-Littrow valley in their rover, discovered orange-colored soil, and left the most comprehensive set of instruments in the ALSEP on the lunar surface. Their mission was the last in the Apollo lunar landing missions. The last 4 Apollo craft were used for the three Skylab missions and the ASTP mission in 1975.
Eugene Cernan is, to date, the last man to have walked on the Moon. Just before he returned to the Lunar Module for the last time, he said,
"As I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come — but we believe not too long into the future — I'd like to just [say] what I believe history will record — that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. 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."
His last words before liftoff were the more prosaic "Let's get this mother out of here".
A plaque left on the ladder of the descent stage of Challenger reads: "Here Man completed his first explorations of the moon. December 1972 AD. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind". The plaque showed two hemispheres of Earth and the near side of the Moon, plus the signatures of Cernan, Evans, Schmitt, and President Nixon.
Like the astronauts of Apollo 10,12,13, and 14 before them, the Apollo 17 crew were recovered in Pacific waters near American Samoa after splashdown. The recovery operation was performed by US Navy helicopter squadron HC-1, with Commander Edward E Dahill III as prime recovery pilot flying helicopter 001. Commander Dahill flew the astronauts to the nearby recovery ship USS Ticonderoga. They were subsequently flown from the recovery ship to the airport at Tafuna where they were greeted with an enthusiastic (and well practiced) Samoan reception before being flown on to Honolulu, thence to Houston.
Commander Eugene Cernan had taken a Czechoslovak flag with him to the Moon because his ancestors came from Czechoslovakia. Later he gave it to the Institute of Astronomy in Ondrejov (now Czech Republic).
The circular patch is one of the most detailed of the Apollo series. The official NASA press release said: "The insignia is dominated by the image of Apollo, the Greek sun god. Suspended in space behind the head of Apollo is an American eagle of contemporary design, the red bars of the eagle's wing represent the bars in the US flag; the three white stars symbolize the three astronaut crewmen. The background is deep blue space and within it are the Moon, the planet Saturn and a spiral galaxy or nebula. The Moon is partially overlaid by the eagle's wing suggesting that this is a celestial body that man has visited and in that sense conquered. The thrust of the eagle and the gaze of Apollo to the right and toward Saturn and the galaxy is meant to imply that man's goals in space will someday include the planets and perhaps the stars. The colors of the emblem are red, white and blue, the colors of the U.S. flag; with the addition of gold, to symbolize the golden age of space flight that will begin with this Apollo 17 lunar landing. The Apollo image used in this emblem was the Apollo of Belvedere sculpture now in the Vatican Gallery in Rome. This emblem was designed by artist Robert T. McCall in collaboration with the astronauts." The insignia is surrounded by a light gray band with names of the crew and the words APOLLO XVII.