Dec 19 1972
From The Space Library
Following successful splashdown-after Dec. 7 launch on longest lunar mission-Apollo 17 astronauts were greeted aboard recovery ship U.S.S. Ticonderoga by 12 Congressmen. President Nixon telephoned his personal congratulations on successful completion of mission. Sen. Barry M. Goldwater (R- Ariz.) said Apollo program results would "give us such scientific values that we will be required to have another lunar program before the end of the century. (AP, NYT, 12/20/72, 30; PD, 12/25/72, 1789)
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Click here to listen to Apollo 17 Mission Audio T+303.35 through T+306.31 Dec 19 1972 Splashdown, Recovery
NASA officials at Manned Spacecraft Center celebrated successful completion of Last Apollo mission, following splashdown of Apollo 17. Dr. Rocco A. Petrone, Apollo Program Director since 1969, said mission "goes into the record books as the most perfect mission, the most sophisticated science mission ever conducted." Apollo 17 "closes a golden chapter in the age of space exploration. In a way, it brings a close to what has been a very romantic era in space exploration. But ... the book is still being written. The next chapter will open the age of exploiting and utilizing space for other benefits." Dr. George M. Low, NASA Deputy Administrator, said, "All great things must come to an end so we can move on to even greater things." Dr. Christopher C. Kraft, Jr., MSC Director, said he had "never seen a more perfect mission" than Apollo 17. Apollo program had been greatest engineering feat of all our lifetimes." Before Apollo, "my mind, like most of us, was bound to earth. It's certainly not that way anymore." NASA spokesman at MSC told press Apollo 17 was "the last, longest, and most successful of seven manned lunar landing missions." (Wilford, NYT, 12/20/72, 1; AP, B Sun, 12/20/72, 1; W Star & News, 12/20/72, A4)
President Nixon issued statement on U.S. space program following splash-down of Apollo 17 command module: "The safe return of the command module America marks the end of one of the most significant chapters in the history of human endeavor. In October 1958, this Nation set about sending men into a hostile, unknown environment. We had little idea what lay before us, but there was new knowledge to be gained and there was a heritage of meeting historical challenge-the challenge of greatness-to be sustained. Project Mercury, begun in 1958, taught us that man could survive and work in space. In 1961, President Kennedy voiced the determination of the United States to place a man on the moon. We gained the understanding and the technology to embark on this great mission through Project Gemini and we accomplished it with the Apollo lunar exploration series.
In 1969, for the first time, men from the planet Earth set foot on the moon. "Since the beginning of Apollo, nine manned flights have been made to the moon. Three circled that nearest neighbor in the universe, six landed and explored its surface. We have barely begun to evaluate the vast treasure store of extraterrestrial data and material from these voyages, but we have already learned much and we know that we are probing our very origins. We are taking another long step in man's ancient search for his own beginnings, pressing beyond knowledge of the means of human existence to find, perhaps, the meaning of human existence. "Nor is this great work ending with the return of Gene Cernan, Jack Schmitt, and Ron Evans from the moon today. Rather it has barely begun. As Sir Isaac Newton attributed his accomplishments to the fact that he stood `upon the shoulders of Giants,' so Newton himself is one of the giants upon whose shoulders we now stand as we reach for the stars. The great mathematician once wrote: `I do not know what I may appear to the world; but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the seashore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.' I believe we have finally moved into the great ocean and we are trying now to understand what surrounds us. "The making of space history will continue, and this Nation means to play a major role in its making.
Next spring, the Skylab will be put into orbit. It will be aimed not at advancing exploration of deep space, but at gaining in space new knowledge for the improvement of life here on earth. It will help develop new methods of learning about the earth's environment and the earth's resources, and new methods of evaluating programs aimed at preserving and enhancing the resources of all the world. It will seek new knowledge about our own star, the sun, and about its tremendous influence on our environment. Scientists aboard the Skylab will perform medical experiments aimed at a better knowledge of man's own physiology. Also, they will perform experiments aimed at developing new industrial processes utilizing the unique capabilities found in space. Skylab will be our first manned space station. It will be in use for the better part of a year, permitting the economy of extended usage, and laying the ground-work for further space stations.
"Economy in space will be further served by the Space Shuttle ... . It will enable us to ferry space research hardware into orbit without requiring the full expenditure of a launch vehicle as is necessary today. It will permit us to place that hardware in space accurately, and to serve or retrieve it when necessary instead of simply writing it off in the event it malfunctions or fails. In addition, the Shuttle will provide such routine access to space that for the first time personnel other than trained astronauts will be able to participate and contribute in space as will nations once excluded for economic reasons. "The near future will see joint space efforts by this Nation and the Soviet Union in an affirmation of our common belief that the hopes and the needs that unite our people and all people are of greater consequence than the differences in philosophy that divide us.
"Finally, we will continue to draw knowledge from the universe through the use of unmanned satellites and probes. "We cannot help but pause today and remember and pay homage to those many men and women-including those who made the ultimate sacrifice-whose hopes, whose energies, skill, and courage enabled the first man to reach the moon and who now have seen with us perhaps the last men in this century leave the moon. But the more we look back the more we are reminded that our thrust has been forward and that our place is among the heavens where our dreams precede us, and where, in time, we shall surely follow. "Though our ancestors would have called the deeds of Apollo miraculous, we do not see our age as an age of miracles. Rather, we deal in facts, we deal in scientific realities, we deal in industrial capacity, and technological expertise, and in the belief that men can do whatever they turn their hands to. For all this, however, can we look at the record of 24 men sent to circle the moon or to stand upon it, and 24 men returned to earth alive and well, and not see God's hand in it? "Perhaps, in spite of ourselves, we do still live in an Age of Miracles. So if there is self-congratulation, let it be tempered with awe, and our pride with prayer, and as we enter this special time of spiritual significance, let us reserve a moment to wonder at what human beings have done in space and to be grateful." (PD, 12/25/72, 1788-9)
Man's lunar theories were undergoing major revision because of Apollo 17, Wall Street Journal said. Observations by astronauts of orange soil on moon-clue to past volcanic activity-had promoted review of Apollo 14 color photos. Review had disclosed brown and orange discolorations on dome in crater Langrenus. Orange soil meant there might be other relatively young volcanic features. Discovery could result in major revision of thermal theories of moon. (WSJ, 12/19/72)
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