Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972)

The 50th Anniversary of Apollo 17
NASA Goddard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhvliTtzQXY

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The other day I sat next to a woman who has a profound fear of flying. I wanted to comfort her, so I said, "Don't worry, we're not gonna' crash. Statistically, we got a better chance of being bitten by a shark." Then I showed her the scar on my elbow from a shark attack. I said, "I got this when my plane went down off of Florida." - Dennis Regan

So, here's a video from when I celebrated the 44th anniversary of the landing (Dec 11). It landed within a few minutes of the real landing's 44th anniversary:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YqrBkXjkWgY

It was months later (partly from a broken arm) before I completed the LM Quad to look more accurate.


"Kicking up some dust"

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cold dust....

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Correct. The judges would also have accepted "Flakey Landing",

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Many here have no doubt seen this before, but I always thought the on-board film footage of the Apollo 17 landing was pretty cool. Kinda makes it feel like you are riding right along with Gene and Jack.

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie7Xt647TYM

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
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It is nice.

I think the Apollo 16 footage is better for seeing the LM shadow, starting at about 1:30 into the video linked below.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rkGNnsCUrrM

The Apollo missions had a launch window of once per lunar cycle for this main reason: Coming in with the sun behind their backs, to highlight shadows of rocks, boulders, and craters, PLUS seeing the LM shadow which was the best "seat of the pants" indicator of altitude and rate of descent (even though of course those were being called out every few seconds).

When I was really deep into playing Kerbal Space Program, for manual landings I usually tried to roll my lander to show its' shadow, so I could judge how close/far the surface was, and the speed.

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Yes, Apollo 16 is also very good… I should have mentioned it too.

I like Charlie Duke’s enthusiasm in his call-outs as they were coming in. One can tell (compared to some of the other LM Pilots during decent) he was just thrilled and amazed to be where he was! Now, John Young as the Commander and doing the piloting may have preferred a bit less emoting, but obviously they had done this many, many, many times in the simulator and were comfortable with each other.

But, when one is landing on the moon for REAL, the emotions of the moment may have gotten the upper hand of Duke. It has been a number of years since I read his autobiography, but as I recall, he said he was on a high from that mission for quite some months afterwards. Don’t blame him!

Just can’t hardly believe Apollos 16 and 17 are 50 years behind us now.

Earl

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Earl L. Cagle, Jr.
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There is currently a video stream being run on youtube that matches the Apollo 17 flight. It can be found at https://youtu.be/hqk2fDTwbO0

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The most excited response I can recall is Alan Bean (LM Pilot, doing the callouts, as Commander Pete Conrad was flying the LM. Once they did a pitch-over maneuver to go from a high angle to a much shallower angle (about 1:49 in the video linked below), Bean recognized the craters for their landing spot were ahead exactly where expected, and got they both got very excited: "There it is, THERE IT IS! .....Right down the Middle". Actually, on listening again, that was probably said by Conrad, as Bean jumps in later. Then Bean made the excited callouts, sometimes calling Conrad "Babe", other times "Pete". "Plenty of gas, plenty of gas, babe..."

That is probably the most excited, in a HAPPY way, any Apollo crew was for landing. And man did they NAIL that landing, a necessity since that site was chosen so they could go check out a Surveyor lander a few hundred feet away, and bring back a few small pieces of it (Apollo 11 missed the planned landing site by miles).

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbj8Zo053Lc

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