|
Apollo
16 was the fifth mission in which humans walked on the lunar surface
and returned to Earth.
Apollo
16 launched on a Saturn V from Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center.
The launch was postponed from the originally scheduled date, March
17, because of a docking ring jettison malfunction.
On
21 April 1972 Commander John W. Young and LM pilot Charles M. Duke,
Jr. landed in the Descartes region of the Moon. CM pilot Thomas
K. Mattingly, II continued in lunar orbit.
Young
and Duke made three moonwalk EVAs totaling 20 hours, 14 minutes.
During this time they covered 27 km using the Lunar Roving Vehicle,
collected 94.7 kg of rock and soil samples, took photographs, and
set up the ALSEP and other scientific experiments.
The
LM took off from the Moon on 24 April and the astronauts returned
to Earth on 27 April.
The
primary mission goals of inspecting, surveying, and sampling materials
in the Descartes region, emplacement and activation of surface experiments,
conducting inflight experiments and photographic tasks from lunar
orbit, engineering evaluation of spacecraft and equipment, and performance
of zero-gravity experiments were achieved despite the mission being
shortened by one day.
|
