NASA’s Last Mission To The Moon Apollo 17 Celebrates 50 Years

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NASA launched Apollo 17 almost 50 years ago, and to celebrate the last human mission to the Moon, the Kennedy Space Center will hold a special program on Dec. 7, 2022. The anniversary of Apollo 17 corresponds to the new goal of having humankind on the Moon again by 2025. The Apollo 17 mission took the first scientist-astronaut to the Moon, which enabled the team to obtain the oldest known lunar rock. The Apollo 17 team also recovered orange soil, deploying multiple scientific experiments.

The Apollo Program was created to encourage lunar exploration and discoveries, including the future possibility of human settlement on the Moon. The Apollo spacecraft was a three-part module created to house astronauts as they trekked to the Moon and back. This spacecraft was flight tested four times before astronauts were allowed on it. Six of the seven other times the craft took flight, it brought astronauts to the lunar surface. The last of these flights, Apollo 17, took astronauts Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, and Ronald Evans to the lunar surface.

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The Kennedy Space Center is celebrating Apollo 17's 50th anniversary with a memorial event. A commemorative card set with a minimum of five cards will be given to each visitor to the space center on Dec. 7, highlighting facts about different missions. Visitors can use these collectibles to continue learning about the Apollo 17 mission, accomplishments, and more. According to NASA, astronauts retrieved the lunar sounder film and mapping camera cassettes to help further research at home. In addition, the Apollo 17 team collected 243 pounds of lunar rock and material. Since NASA knew this would be the last crewed trip to the Moon,