Why Apollo ended with Apollo 17's 1972 splashdown

Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific near American Samoa on December 19, 1972, after 12 days, 13 hours and 52 minutes, ending the last crewed Moon-landing mission and with it NASA’s Apollo lunar program.

The command module America hit the atmosphere at 24,606 mph, putting the crew through about 7 g and a three-and-a-half-minute radio blackout. It landed a little more than a mile from its target and under four miles from the carrier USS Ticonderoga; Gene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison Schmitt were on its deck 52 minutes later.

They brought home Apollo records: moonwalks totalling 22 hours, 4 minutes, the longest stay on the surface, and 110.4 kg of samples, the program’s biggest haul.

There was never an Apollo 18, though Apollo was planned to run to Apollo 20. Once the 1969 landing had won the political contest, NASA faced deep funding cuts, and in 1970 the last three missions were cancelled. Royal Museums Greenwich puts the final bill at about $20 billion, against an early estimate of $7 billion, and public support was fading amid civil unrest at home. By the time Apollo 17 launched, the program’s fate was sealed and NASA’s human spaceflight effort had turned to the Space Shuttle.

The cancellations reshaped the final crew. Schmitt, a geologist, had been in line for Apollo 18; scientists lobbied to move him onto Apollo 17, which became the only Apollo mission with no former test pilot aboard.

No one has landed since. NASA’s next landing is Artemis IV, now targeted for early 2028, more than 55 years after America came home.