Apollo 17

[the_other_Doug]

Forty-two years ago today (or early tomorrow morning, if you were in the Eastern time zone), Apollo 17 took off in a blaze of light and glory.

This picture is purported to be of the Apollo 17 vehicle on the pad during the day of launch.  The MSS has been pulled back and the vehicle stands along with its launch tower.  More tonight...

[the_other_Doug]

Apollo 17.  The last flight of "mainline Apollo."  The final lunar landing flight of Apollo.  The first, and only, launch of a Saturn V at night.

And the *only* Saturn V launch ever delayed for technical reasons.

I still recall sitting at my family TV, on the floor with a Yashica-Mat camera on a specially modified mount that was exactly even with the TV screen at the ready to take pictures off the TV.  We get to the final minute of the count, my blood pressure and heart rate begin to rise, when...

"T-minus 30 seconds, we have a cutoff, we have a cutoff at T-minus 30 seconds. We are standing by at T-minus 30 second mark.  We'll bring word to you just as soon as we get it. We have a cutoff at T-minus 30 seconds. T-minus 30 seconds and holding. This is Kennedy Launch Control."

A sensor failed to report the third stage tank pressurization complete to the automatic sequencer, and the sequencer shut down the count.  Or, if you ascribe to my brother's theory of the night, the Saturn was such a large and complex vehicle that it attained some kind of sentience, and was aware a billion or more people were watching it -- and just wanted to bask in the glow of the searchlights for a little while longer before doing its thing.

A quick jumper to the automatic sequencer (not a computer program but an electromechanical sequencer, so to tell it the failed sensor path was not to stop the count, two leads were jumpered to complete the required signal path).  This time, at just past 11 pm CST on 12/6/72, fire belched from the base of the most mighty rocket in history and a pillar of light lifted into the sky as an ersatz sun.

[the_other_Doug]

After the only mid-Atlantic TLI in Apollo, CSM America and LM Challenger headed out towards the Moon.

Because the landing site was farther east than any other during Apollo, the Moon was a nearly new Moon at launch.  As the phases of the Earth and the Moon are related in an inverse fashion, a new Moon means a full Earth.  This resulted in the now-iconic full Earth picture featuring a fine view of Africa and Antarctica.

Below I give you a few images of the transposition and docking maneuver, and the receding Earth.

[the_other_Doug]

Seventeen, as I mentioned before, landed at the easternmost site of all of the Apollo landings.  That meant that the crew could see the Moon as they approached for LOI, unlike crews who landed at sites farther west where the spacecraft approached the Moon while in its shadow.

This also meant there was more and brighter Earthlight onto the non-sunlit face of the near side.  So the first image below is a view of Mare Orientale in Earthlight.  The second is a view of the Earth setting near the beginning of the lunar orbital portion of the mission.  As a contrast, the third image is of Earthset near the end of their time on and around the Moon, showing how much the Earth's disk had slimmed to a thin crescent after spending nearly a week there.

[the_other_Doug]

And then Challenger separated from America and pulled away...

[the_other_Doug]

Apollo 17 on the Moon.

I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves...

[Ronpur50]

If I remember right, it was during Apollo 17 that we looked up at the sky when leaving my grandparents farm to see a sight very similar the picture below.  We assumed that somehow, we were seeing Apollo on the way to the moon.  ( I was 6!) However, in the morning paper, we discovered we were not the only ones who thought that.  But they said it was Venus.  Oh well.  At least it got everyone looking at the moon and thinking of Apollo again.

[the_other_Doug]

And I pledge allegiance...

[the_other_Doug]

If I remember right, it was during Apollo 17 that we looked up at the sky when leaving my grandparents farm to see a sight very similar the picture below.  We assumed that somehow, we were seeing Apollo on the way to the moon.  ( I was 6!) However, in the morning paper, we discovered we were not the only ones who thought that.  But they said it was Venus.  Oh well.  At least it got everyone looking at the moon and thinking of Apollo again.

That's definitely Venus -- but it's a great picture, nonetheless!

And yes, one of the most salutary aspects of Apollo was seeing how people looked up into the night sky, for awhile there, and saw themselves there...

[the_other_Doug]

Working on the Moon...

[dks13827]

I thank all of you for posting some wonderful Apollo 17 memories.

[Avron]

"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."

[dave1938]

If I remember right, it was during Apollo 17 that we looked up at the sky when leaving my grandparents farm to see a sight very similar the picture below.  We assumed that somehow, we were seeing Apollo on the way to the moon.  ( I was 6!) However, in the morning paper, we discovered we were not the only ones who thought that.  But they said it was Venus.  Oh well.  At least it got everyone looking at the moon and thinking of Apollo again.

As the photo a few posts above yours shows the Earth was a small crescent when Apollo 17 was at the Moon. Thus the Moon as seen from the Earth at the same time would have been the exact opposite that is nearly full.

[dave1938]

Apollo 17.  The last flight of "mainline Apollo."  The final lunar landing flight of Apollo.  The first, and only, launch of a Saturn V at night.

And the *only* Saturn V launch ever delayed for technical reasons.

I still recall sitting at my family TV, on the floor with a Yashica-Mat camera on a specially modified mount that was exactly even with the TV screen at the ready to take pictures off the TV.  We get to the final minute of the count, my blood pressure and heart rate begin to rise, when...

"T-minus 30 seconds, we have a cutoff, we have a cutoff at T-minus 30 seconds. We are standing by at T-minus 30 second mark.  We'll bring word to you just as soon as we get it. We have a cutoff at T-minus 30 seconds. T-minus 30 seconds and holding. This is Kennedy Launch Control."

A sensor failed to report the third stage tank pressurization complete to the automatic sequencer, and the sequencer shut down the count.  Or, if you ascribe to my brother's theory of the night, the Saturn was such a large and complex vehicle that it attained some kind of sentience, and was aware a billion or more people were watching it -- and just wanted to bask in the glow of the searchlights for a little while longer before doing its thing.

A quick jumper to the automatic sequencer (not a computer program but an electromechanical sequencer, so to tell it the failed sensor path was not to stop the count, two leads were jumpered to complete the required signal path).  This time, at just past 11 pm CST on 12/6/72, fire belched from the base of the most mighty rocket in history and a pillar of light lifted into the sky as an ersatz sun.

The third stage (S-IVB) LOX tank pressurization Command was not issued by the computer in the first launch attempt or the signal was lost before the mechanical relay on the command path leaving the computer. The engineer on the console took silence action, as he was supposed to do, and threw the switch on his console to start the Lox tank pressurization. The tank was actually at flight pressure when the cut off was issued ( because the computer "saw" the relay was not latched) even though the tank was at flight pressure......The vacuum tube stuffed IBM computer was not programmed to see if the human took care of that pressurization task. The test conductor polled the Firing Room for anomalies after the vehicle was in a safe condition. The Contractor engineer reported that he saw the tank was not pressurizing and he took the action himself. He recommended that the terminal countdown be restarted however NASA took several ours to agree with the contractor engineer. We reinitiated the terminal count and launched after NASA HQ approval.

Edit/Lar: Fix quotes

[the_other_Doug]

Apollo 17.  The last flight of "mainline Apollo."  The final lunar landing flight of Apollo.  The first, and only, launch of a Saturn V at night.

And the *only* Saturn V launch ever delayed for technical reasons.

I still recall sitting at my family TV, on the floor with a Yashica-Mat camera on a specially modified mount that was exactly even with the TV screen at the ready to take pictures off the TV.  We get to the final minute of the count, my blood pressure and heart rate begin to rise, when...

"T-minus 30 seconds, we have a cutoff, we have a cutoff at T-minus 30 seconds. We are standing by at T-minus 30 second mark.  We'll bring word to you just as soon as we get it. We have a cutoff at T-minus 30 seconds. T-minus 30 seconds and holding. This is Kennedy Launch Control."

A sensor failed to report the third stage tank pressurization complete to the automatic sequencer, and the sequencer shut down the count.  Or, if you ascribe to my brother's theory of the night, the Saturn was such a large and complex vehicle that it attained some kind of sentience, and was aware a billion or more people were watching it -- and just wanted to bask in the glow of the searchlights for a little while longer before doing its thing.

A quick jumper to the automatic sequencer (not a computer program but an electromechanical sequencer, so to tell it the failed sensor path was not to stop the count, two leads were jumpered to complete the required signal path).  This time, at just past 11 pm CST on 12/6/72, fire belched from the base of the most mighty rocket in history and a pillar of light lifted into the sky as an ersatz sun.

The third stage (S-IVB) LOX tank pressurization Command was not issued by the computer in the first launch attempt or the signal was lost before the mechanical relay on the command path leaving the computer. The engineer on the console took silence action, as he was supposed to do, and threw the switch on his console to start the Lox tank pressurization. The tank was actually at flight pressure when the cut off was issued ( because the computer "saw" the relay was not latched) even though the tank was at flight pressure......The vacuum tube stuffed IBM computer was not programmed to see if the human took care of that pressurization task. The test conductor polled the Firing Room for anomalies after the vehicle was in a safe condition. The Contractor engineer reported that he saw the tank was not pressurizing and he took the action himself. He recommended that the terminal countdown be restarted however NASA took several ours to agree with the contractor engineer. We reinitiated the terminal count and launched after NASA HQ approval.

Ah, kewl -- I had always thought it was a sensor reading that failed to make it back into the sequencer's "awareness," but it was merely knowledge of the latched/unlatched state of a relay?  Very interesting.

[the_other_Doug]

One of the most beautiful things, to my eye, that came out of the Apollo landings were the images of the LMs sitting on the surface.  They were usually the only splash of color in an otherwise gray landscape, giving them a special kind of beauty in their environment.

Here are a few nice images of LM-12, Challenger, upon the Moon, including a couple of nice images of the LM's steerable S-band antenna very obviously aimed directly at our little Earth hanging up in the black lunar sky.

Also, in the final image, one reason why Challenger had a slight pitch-up angle as it sat on the surface -- the rear pad ended up directly in a small crater not that much larger than the pad itself, dropping that whole leg down by a few inches.  That and a very gentle slope of the ground resulted in a small pitch-up angle, nothing that caused any problems for surface activities (and nothing at all like the most off-vertical landing, that of LM-10 Falcon on Apollo 15).

[the_other_Doug]

If I remember right, it was during Apollo 17 that we looked up at the sky when leaving my grandparents farm to see a sight very similar the picture below.  We assumed that somehow, we were seeing Apollo on the way to the moon.  ( I was 6!) However, in the morning paper, we discovered we were not the only ones who thought that.  But they said it was Venus.  Oh well.  At least it got everyone looking at the moon and thinking of Apollo again.

As the photo a few posts above yours shows the Earth was a small crescent when Apollo 17 was at the Moon. Thus the Moon as seen from the Earth at the same time would have been the exact opposite that is nearly full.

Apollo 17 arrived at the Moon while the Earth was still rather full (gibbous waning) and the Moon, from Earth, was a waxing crescent.  But, from LOI to TEI, that crew was on or around the Moon for nearly a week.  By the time they left, the phases had reversed, the Earth was a slim crescent to the crew and us Earth-people saw a waxing gibbous, nearly full Moon.

Ron's picture, in terms of the Moon's phase, would be correct for sometime around LOI day.  Very much not correct for TEI day, though.

[the_other_Doug]

Fabulous Moonscapes...

[the_other_Doug]

But as we glimpse the LM from afar, like all good things, the lunar stay comes to an end -- with a bang!

[the_other_Doug]

Challenger and America take pictures of each other.

[llanitedave]

I could never get my head around how they could fold that lunar rover so tightly into an LM bay.  And then get it out  and unfold it again!

[Ronpur50]

If I remember right, it was during Apollo 17 that we looked up at the sky when leaving my grandparents farm to see a sight very similar the picture below.  We assumed that somehow, we were seeing Apollo on the way to the moon.  ( I was 6!) However, in the morning paper, we discovered we were not the only ones who thought that.  But they said it was Venus.  Oh well.  At least it got everyone looking at the moon and thinking of Apollo again.

As the photo a few posts above yours shows the Earth was a small crescent when Apollo 17 was at the Moon. Thus the Moon as seen from the Earth at the same time would have been the exact opposite that is nearly full.

Apollo 17 arrived at the Moon while the Earth was still rather full (gibbous waning) and the Moon, from Earth, was a waxing crescent.  But, from LOI to TEI, that crew was on or around the Moon for nearly a week.  By the time they left, the phases had reversed, the Earth was a slim crescent to the crew and us Earth-people saw a waxing gibbous, nearly full Moon.

Ron's picture, in terms of the Moon's phase, would be correct for sometime around LOI day.  Very much not correct for TEI day, though.

It was early in the flight, so it would have looked like that.  I am sure there must be an astronomy site somewhere that would show when Venus and the moon appeared like that in December 1972. 

[the_other_Doug]

Here's something you rarely see in these spacecraft images -- a close-up of the approaching LM ascent stage, where you can see the guy behind the window.

[Blackstar]

I could never get my head around how they could fold that lunar rover so tightly into an LM bay.  And then get it out  and unfold it again!

Have you seen the episode of Moon Machines? Go buy the DVD. It's very good.

They show the unfolding and upfolding several times, and it never looks like it will work to me. Some clever engineering there.

[Lobo]

The Challenger LEM looks like it has a lot more "tan" and some other colors on it than other LEM's, which seemed to be primarily grey/silver/black (orther than the gold film)  Did it haver different materials on it than other LEM's?  Or was that just due to lighting/photography conditions?

[the_other_Doug]

All of the LMs had some "tan" surfaces on their ascent stges, but the J-mission LMs had a little more.  Their paints were a little different, since they were designed to operate on the surface at higher sun angles.

The extra paint was a "nice to have" thing, anyway, as a bad paint batch resulted in a lot of that tan-colored paint shredding off of Apollo 16's LM, Orion.  And Apollo 16, due to its late landing, did get a higher sun angle on the surface by the end of its stay than any of the other LMs.

[the_other_Doug]

Back to some memories...

On the long coast back to Earth, Ron Evans took the final cislunar EVA in the Apollo program.

"Talk about being a spaceman!"

[Lobo]

Wow, I bet that really seemed "lonely" out there, with the Earth and Moon being so far away, and the Apollo CSM being your whole world there.  Unlike the feeling in LEO or on the lunar surface.

Was that the only EVA done in cislunar space?  Or did other Apollo missions do it as well?  And what was the purpose for it?

[Ronpur50]

Retrieving film from the SM science pallet.  And 15, 16 and 17 had the walk.  If I remember right, the Command Module pilot used the EVA helmet cover of one of the moonwalkers, because they only carried two on the flight.  Which is why the red stripe is there on Ron's helmet.  Also, on his back is one of the emergency packs from a PLSS.

[the_other_Doug]

Yep -- the CDR stayed in the left seat, at the controls to damp out any rates the CMP put into the CSM banging around outside.  The CMP went all the way outside and back to the middle of the SM where the Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) bay was located, and removed film and data cassettes for return to Earth.  (The SM was abandoned and burned up when it got back to Earth, recall, so any hard data like film had to be retrieved and brought into the CM.)

The LMP stood up in the hatch while the CMP went back to the SM.  It was a "buddy system" deal, where the LMP kept watch for tangling of umbilicals, etc., and to hand the film cassettes in to the CDR as the CMP brought them back to the hatch area.  It was a team effort.

The LMP wore his own visor assembly, brought back from the lunar surface operations, and the CMP used the CDR's (since the CDR didn't need it, sitting inside the CM).  The LMP wore his own OPS (Oxygen Purge System, the emergency oxygen bottle that at atop the PLSSes durng the moonwalks) and the CMP wore the CDR's.  The rest of the PLSSes were left on the Moon.

While the LMP's umbilicals were far shorter than the CMPs for the cislunar EVA, he had a longer tether available and if the CMP got into trouble, the LMP could crank up the oxygen coming from the OPS and go out to help the CMP get back to the CM, if need be.

Each of the three CMPs who performed this EVA (Al Worden, Ken Mattingly and Ron Evans, in chronological order) were struck by it.  The spacecraft seems to be hanging motionless in an eternal velvet blackness, the stars invisible unless you look away from the side of the Apollo and raise the sun visor.  The crescent Earth ahead and the gibbous Moon behind also seem to hang motionless in the void, and the unfiltered sunlight made it feel like they were stepping out onto a stage lit by arc lights.  Some of the guys, especially Al Worden on Apollo 15, found this awe-inspiring.  The late Ron Evans exulted in it, giggling and chortling and saying 'hi!' to his friends and family.  It was Evans who chortled, shortly after exiting the spacecraft, "Talk about being a spaceman!"

And these pictures were from the third and last time such an EVA was performed.  We've performed a lot of EVAs since then, but no more quite like this, surrounded by the great, empty vastness of space.

[Davp99]

2015..... I'll be turning 60 years old, and I'm just Grateful for All the Sights I have witnessed. Thank You for everything.  Our US Government tax Dollars & All who worked for and at NASA.

Dave

[DMeader]

The LMP wore his own visor assembly, brought back from the lunar surface operations, and the CMP used the CDR's (since the CDR didn't need it, sitting inside the CM).  The LMP wore his own OPS (Oxygen Purge System, the emergency oxygen bottle that at atop the PLSSes durng the moonwalks) and the CMP wore the CDR's.

I appreciate the details on the visors and OPS. I did not know any of that, and I love little facts like that. I wonder what happened to those items after the walk? Did they bring them home or jettison them?

[the_other_Doug]

The LMP wore his own visor assembly, brought back from the lunar surface operations, and the CMP used the CDR's (since the CDR didn't need it, sitting inside the CM).  The LMP wore his own OPS (Oxygen Purge System, the emergency oxygen bottle that at atop the PLSSes durng the moonwalks) and the CMP wore the CDR's.

I appreciate the details on the visors and OPS. I did not know any of that, and I love little facts like that. I wonder what happened to those items after the walk? Did they bring them home or jettison them?

There was a jettison bag tossed out at the end of the EVA, but I don't believe it included the visor assemblies or OPS units.  They would have had to keep the cabin depressurized, doffed the LEVVAs and the OPSs, packed them into the bag, toss the bag, and finally repress the cabin.  I don't think they went through all of that, they just tossed old junk they wouldn't need (like old empty meal packs, etc.).  They *might* have disconnected and packed up the EVA umbilical and tossed it, but I'm not certain.

I am pretty certain I've seen pictures of the LEVVAs from the later landing missions in museums, so I'm pretty sure they were brought back.

On the earlier landing flights (Apollos 11, 12 and 14) they launched from the Moon with the LEVVAs and OPSs, to support a possible EVA to transfer from the LM to the CM in case the vehicles couldn't dock (or couldn't clear the tunnel after docking).  On those flights, though, they left the LEVVAs and OPSs inside the LM to die with the LM as it crashed into the Moon.  They only started bringing them back, to support the cislunar EVA, on the final three flights.

One interesting sidelight -- the SIM bay was actually in development to fly on Apollo 15 even when that flight was still on the books as an H mission (45-hour spacecraft, 38-hour stay time, two EVAs and a rickshaw hand tool/sample carrier).  With the delay in flying Apollo 14, after the Apollo 13 debacle, the engineers told NASA management that the SIM bay was ready to fly on Apollo 14, and wanted to add it.  Al Shepard personally nixed the idea, not wanting to add one single untested thing onto his mission that could possibly have added complications.  Thus, Stu Roosa was forever cut off from the possibility of performing the cislunar EVA he longed to do.

[wbianco]

Hey Doug, just had a look at the Apollo flight journal - appears they only brought one OPS back with them from lunar orbit, which the CMP (Worden, Mattingly, Evans) wore during the EVA.  The LMP was on umbilical, but didn't have a backup source of O2 - so no ability to do get the CMP if necessary.  There's one pic of the LMP during the A16 EVA (taken over his shoulder) and it doesn't look like he has an OPS. 

As for the "why not," I think there was a healthy respect for the pressure (~5000 psi) in the OPS bottles.  Standard procedure to dump the OPS bottles to help repress the CSM after the EVA - then finish emptying them at the ed-of-day repress.  Which I would do too, if the alternative was to sit next to a lightweight high pressure bottle all the way home.....

[KEdward5]

Before the days of iPhones. A personal view of Apollo 17's launch!

[the_other_Doug]

Hey Doug, just had a look at the Apollo flight journal - appears they only brought one OPS back with them from lunar orbit, which the CMP (Worden, Mattingly, Evans) wore during the EVA.  The LMP was on umbilical, but didn't have a backup source of O2 - so no ability to do get the CMP if necessary.  There's one pic of the LMP during the A16 EVA (taken over his shoulder) and it doesn't look like he has an OPS. 

As for the "why not," I think there was a healthy respect for the pressure (~5000 psi) in the OPS bottles.  Standard procedure to dump the OPS bottles to help repress the CSM after the EVA - then finish emptying them at the ed-of-day repress.  Which I would do too, if the alternative was to sit next to a lightweight high pressure bottle all the way home.....

Thanks!  There are no pictures of the LMPs standing in the hatch taken by the CMPs, since the CMPs never brought a camera out with them to take pictures during the EVAs,  I had seen some paintings of the EVAs depicting both the CMP and LMP wearing OPSs, but I totally believe you in re the pressurization on the OPS bottles (and I was aware of the OPS dump to help repress the CM cabin).  Those suckers were pressurized to around 6,000 psia!

[the_other_Doug]

Here is Jack Schmitt on the way home, obviously still reacting to the message from Nixon which included the line "this may be the last time men walk on the Moon in this century..."

[the_other_Doug]

Before the days of iPhones. A personal view of Apollo 17's launch!

Exceptional launch film!  Especially the effect of the shock front from the engine blast reaching the viewing stands more than 5 seconds after engine ignition.

Was that super-8mm sound film, or 16mm sound film?  Or was the sound captured "wild" (i.e., on a separate tape recorder) and synced with the film later?

[Ronpur50]

It sounds like it is ripping the sky.......WOW!

[wbianco]

Here's one picture of the A16 EVA, from http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo16/lores/s72-37001.jpg, taken over Duke's shoulder (maybe a frame from the TV camera - probably).  But yes, none of the CMPs carried a camera, so no reverse angles. 

Schmidt talked in the A17 ALSJ about taking one of the EVA cameras back on the LM (supposed to be jettisoned) so they could take pics during Evan's EVA.  Appears they did but maybe only of Evans?

[JAFO]

Not sure what the protocol is to post links to other websites, and slightly OT but since we're talking about the deep space EVAs, here are a couple paintings about them

Artist impression of the Apollo 15 EVA from outside the vehicle:
http://www.ninfinger.org/karld/My%20Space%20Museum/a15sim3.jpg

Had Al Worden been allowed to carry a camera with him, this is the photo he would have taken:
http://www.ninfinger.org/karld/My%20Space%20Museum/natgeo06.jpg



One thing I wondered about these EVAs: did they stop the thermal roll, or were they able to see the moon/earth rotating during the EVA?

[the_other_Doug]

...One thing I wondered about these EVAs: did they stop the thermal roll, or were they able to see the moon/earth rotating during the EVA?

The passive thermal control (PTC) roll was stopped for event like this.  Even though the rotational energy would have seemed negligible to the crew, it would still have tended to try and push the EVA astronaut away from the side of the SM, and if they were in PTC and somehow the CMP should lose footing and end up at the end of his string, extending him out radially would have pulled hard at the whole stack.  Also would have served to greatly slow down any PTC roll.

They would often stop the PTC roll during coast, both for navigation purposes (for taking nav sightings) and also for comm purposes, especially when sending TV transmissions.  The high gain antenna could track the Earth during a PTC roll, but would hit the end of its coverage pattern and have to drive back to the other end of the stops to pick Earth back up.  So they would generally only send TV through it while the roll was stopped, to avoid sudden interruption.  While doing the PTC roll, unless high bit-rate data was needed, they would normally use the omni-directional antennae to communicate.

[the_other_Doug]

And, as with everything the end came.  The CM America entered Earth's atmosphere and splashed gently into the Pacific, the crew pulled off of the ocean's surface by helicopter and deposited on the carrier.

Thus was the end of the beginning (not, as Geno pointed out to everyone, the beginning of the end).  In absolute terms, the first age of human lunar exploration lasted exactly four years, from the lift-off of Apollo 8 on December 21st, 1968 to the splashdown of Apollo 17 on December 20, 1972.

This first age of lunar exploration was by far the most exciting time of my life.  I was alive and witnessed the fulfillment of the greatest dream ever dreamt by human beings since we first began to look up in the sky and imagined that the Moon was a place where people could visit, or even go to live.  I saw it, I lived it.  And, to a great degree, the forty-two years since have been an almost insufferable anti-climax.

For my generation, it's almost like what happened to some of the Apollo astronauts -- once you've hit the apex of your life, where do you go from there?  As a race and a culture, once we had accomplished this highest of our ancestral strivings, where did we go from there?  The answer -- nowhere, we just sank back into our violence-strewn miasma -- has been so dis-spiriting that some of us have to deny it ever happened, to keep ourselves from suffering from the devastating feeling that comes from the fact that we, human beings, did godlike things.  And chose to do those things no longer.

Godspeed the message and the true meaning of Apollo.

[MATTBLAK]

Doug - you've made the Nasaspaceflight.com post of the year in my opinion and brought tears to my eyes.

To all those flat-earth, "it's nothing but flags & footprints" haters...

Long Live The Spirit Of Apollo.

[the_other_Doug]

Thank you for the kind words.  It's just my flawed way of trying to express my feelings about Apollo.

Now, on to a new thread, the beginning of the lunar adventure -- the flight of Apollo 8.

[catdlr]

Posted by: the_other_Doug

This first age of lunar exploration was by far the most exciting time of my life.  I was alive and witnessed the fulfillment of the greatest dream ever dreamt by human beings since we first began to look up in the sky and imagined that the Moon was a place where people could visit, or even go to live.  I saw it, I lived it.  And, to a great degree, the forty-two years since have been an almost insufferable anti-climax.

Doug, I am with you 100%. I was also living during that time and still get the excitment when I view the old videos.  I thought by now we would be on Mars and looking forward to missions beyond.

[rocketguy101]

Thank you for the kind words.  It's just my flawed way of trying to express my feelings about Apollo.

Now, on to a new thread, the beginning of the lunar adventure -- the flight of Apollo 8.

I hope you don't mind, but I copy/pasted your quote on facebook...I remember the Apollo flights like they happened yesterday...

[Hodapp]

Amen!
I lived the Apollo era up close and personal; what a blessing!!!  As frustrating as our propensity for just throwing good things away; we are still slowly advancing the technology and making slow progress.  It's the sell job to Congress that needs to advance or nothing will change quickly.
We are in the time between Charles Lindbergh (Apollo era) and the birth of true airline travel...it will come but ever so slowly...as Sam Gamgee says..."its a dangerous business going out your front door"
I'm still hopeful for a bright future...with the development of private spaceflight (Go XCOR Lynx!), commercial, and gov't. (A lot of irons in the fire so to speak)
It will never be like Apollo ever again...so I'm grateful to have lived those great times and have a more realistic outlook for a different time.  We live in a time when space travel is no longer headlines and is back page stuff and politicians don't really care, so its amazing that we are as far along as we are.

[catdlr]

Bump for some Videos:

Apollo 17 - Launch - Network TV

Apollo 17 - Launch - Network TV

Coverage begins at T-5 minutes and concludes after orbital insertion. This video contains the infamous interview with Charles Smith (aged "130").

[catdlr]

Apollo 17: The Last Journey to the Moon - The End of the Beginning? (Reconstructed)

Apollo 17: The Last Journey to the Moon - The End of the Beginning?

The following documentary was broadcast on BBC-1 at 1.20am on 7th
December 1972, a few hours before Apollo 17 launched to the moon.
It has not been seen since broadcast that night.

Only the audio is currently available. The video presented here is therefore a reconstruction of the original, using the audio only. Therefore, it is open to interpretation if the film that has been added to the audio, is what was seen on the night of broadcast. Some of the audio is also missing and this is apparent in the continuity..

From the Radio Times Listing - 6th December 1972:

Apollo 17: The Last Journey to the Moon: The End of the Beginning?
James Burke tells the story of America's manned exploration of space; the
film shows the successes and the failures, and tells why tonight's blast-off
will probably be the last time man goes to the Moon this century.

All video courtesy NASA

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Apollo 17 Translunar Coast - Enhanced Footage- Moonpans



 
Dec 8, 2025
The crew spend some downtime recording some 16mm film footage onboard the Command and Lunar Modules, during Translunar Coast
Video enhancement and Music by Moonpans
Original source video Apollo Flight Journal

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Apollo 17 LM Undocking 16mm Footage Enhanced

Dec 10, 2025
Enhanced 16mm footage of the Apollo 17 Lunar Module, Challenger, as it undocks from the Command Module in lunar orbit and begins its descent to the lunar surface

Interpolated to 60fps, enhanced and music by Moonpans

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Apollo 17 Lunar Liftoff Enhanced Footage



Dec 15, 2025
Combining footage from the LM onboard 16mm film camera and the Lunar Rover TV camera of the liftoff of the Apollo 17 ascent stage

Footage enhancement and audio synchronisation by Moonpans
Original 16mm footage source: Apollo Flight Journal

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Apollo 17 Lunar Rendezvous 16mm Footage Enhanced

Dec 16, 2025
16mm footage captured by Ron Evans in the Command Module of Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt ascending from the Lunar Surface to rendezvous and dock with the Command Module.

Enhanced video and Music by Moonpans
Original Source Video: Apollo FLight Journal

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Apollo 17 Deep Space EVA - Upscaled and Interpolated

Dec 16, 2025
16mm film footage of Ron Evans' Deep Space EVA on Apollo 17 - Conducted on Dec 17, 1972, in order to retrieve film canisters from the Scientific Instrument Module of the Service Module.

Upscaled, Interpolated, and Audio Sync by Moonpans
Original 16mm Video Source: Apollo Flight Journal

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https://twitter.com/Moonpans/status/2003569341908828648

Mike Constantine
@Moonpans
·
Apollo 17 Mystery Object on the Moon

In this video Mission Control spot a mysterious object in the distance, thinking it might be something on the TV camera lens they first try shaking the camera to dislodge it, but the object is definitely on the Moon.

So they ask the crew to take a look and report back…..