NASA

Moonwalker

This astronaut crossed the Kármán Line (100 km), the internationally accepted boundary of space.

Crossed Kármán Line

Moon Flyer

Apollo 17

"We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind." - Gene Cernan, as he became the last person to leave the Moon's surface on December 14th, 1972. Apollo 17 was the sixth and final human lunar landing to date, it marks the last time humans left Low Earth Orbit, and was the only time a scientist, Harrison Schmitt, traveled to the Moon. It was the only lunar mission to carry mice. The flight set several records including longest human lunar mission and most time spent on the Moon by a human flight. It was the first night launch of humans for the U.S. and was visible as far away as 800 km. It marked the last human flight of the Saturn V rocket, which retired a few months later with the launch of Skylab into Earth orbit. Apollo 17 was the last time the Apollo human spacecraft and Saturn V rocket were used for their lunar purposes. Humans have never returned to the Moon since this mission.

The main Apollo spacecraft was a Command and Service Module designed to take three astronauts to and from the Moon’s orbit and provide access to the lunar lander during missions. After the Moon program ended, Apollo spacecraft flew three crews to the Skylab space station and performed the historic joint U.S.-Soviet mission in 1975.

Apollo

Harrison H. Schmitt

United States of America

Apollo 17 Third moonwalk

Apollo 17 Transearth EVA

Apollo 17 First moonwalk

Apollo 17 Second moonwalk

Apollo 10

The flight that did everything except land on the Moon. Apollo 10 was a full-on dress rehearsal of Apollo 11. This mission would do everything except touch down on the lunar surface. The flight marked the first undocking and redocking of a spacecraft in orbit of a space body other than Earth and achieved the fastest speed to date for a human mission of 39,897 km/h. During the non-landing descent toward the Moon, Stafford and Cernan came within 15 km of the lunar surface. Apollo 10 was a total success. The stage was now set. Apollo 11 would attempt to land humans on the Moon.

Gemini 9A

The original two person crew, Elliot See and Charles Bassett were killed in a plane crash while travelling to inspect their capsule three months before launch. They were replaced by their backup crewmembers. The flight was originally Gemini 9, which was to launch shortly after its Agena target vehicle and dock to it in orbit. The Agena launch failed and the original Gemini 9 mission was redesignated Gemini 9A and docked with an Augmented Target Docking Adapter, launched less than two weeks after the Agena failure. When Stafford and Cernan rendezvoused with the target, they confirmed telemetry indicating the payload fairing had failed to completely separate during launch and was blocking the docking adaptor. The docking was called off and the crew went on to perform a spacewalk fraught with issues that revealed large deficiencies in the spacewalking suits that needed to be corrected before the Apollo lunar missions.

Gemini was a two-person spacecraft designed to prove technologies and procedures for the Apollo lunar landings. Crews proved rendezvous and docking as well as transfer from one ship to another via spacewalk were possible. Gemini demonstrated that humans could live and work in space for the length of time needed for a lunar flight.

Get the Supercluster App

Donate to Support Supercluster

Supercluster on Patreon

Fact of the Day

Want more space stories?

GET THE SUPERCLUSTER APP

THE SUPERCLUSTER PODCAST

Donate to support

The Supercluster App

Featuring our global Launch Tracker, interactive Astronaut Database, and Stations Dashboard.

Stay on top of everything leaving Earth; get mission info, countdowns, livestreams, and customized notifications that alert you when a rocket is launching or when a space station is in the skies overhead.

Download