Apollo 17 splashed down, ending the Apollo Moon program
On this day · 19 December 1972
When Apollo 17 hit the Pacific on December 19, 1972, the era of humans walking on the Moon quietly came to a close.
At 2:25 p.m. EST on December 19, 1972, the command module America dropped under its parachutes into the Pacific Ocean, 350 nautical miles southeast of American Samoa. Inside were Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans, and geologist Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, home after a mission of 12 days, 13 hours, and 52 minutes.
The splashdown landed barely four miles from the recovery ship USS Ticonderoga. It also closed the books on the Apollo program: this was NASA’s sixth and last crewed lunar landing, and no human has set foot on the Moon since.
Cernan, the last man to leave the surface, climbed the ladder of the lunar module on December 14, 1972.
Apollo 17 had set Apollo records along the way, with the longest moonwalks, totaling just over 22 hours, and the longest stay on the surface. Then the rockets stopped, and the Moon went quiet for the next half-century.
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