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Apollo 16
Launched: 16 April 1972
Landed: 20 April 1972, Descartes Highlands
Splashed Down: 27 April 1972
Crew:
John W Young
Thomas Mattingly II
Charles M Duke Jr
A malfunction in the main propulsion system of the Lunar Module 'Orion' almost scrubbed the landing, but after its success Young and Duke spent three days exploring the geologically interesting Descartes Highlands region while Mattingly circled overhead in the Command Module 'Casper'
It was thought that Descartes may be an area of active volcanism, but this proved not to be the case. Among other specimens, the astronauts returned the largest moon rock ever weighing 11kg
During this flight the moon racers also had a bit of fun testing out the capabilities of the Lunar Rover, at one point getting it up to around 17 km/h
Apollo-16 (32)
Lifted off from Pad 39-A 16 April 1972
Payload:Apollo 16 Casper (CM-113) and Orion (LM-11)
Rocket used: Saturn V
Duration: 11 Days, 01 hours, 51 min, seconds
Lunar Location: Descartes Highlands
Lunar Coordinates: 8.97 degrees South, 15.51 degrees East
Mission Highlights:
Landing site: Descartes Highlands. First study of highlands area. Selected surface experiments deployed, ultraviolet camera/spectrograph used for first time on the Moon; LRV used for second time. Lunar surface stay-time, 71 hours; in lunar orbit 126 hours, with 64 orbits. Mattingly performed 1 hour in-flight EVA. 95.8 kg of lunar samples collected
Above: a 1 kg gram Apollo 16 breccia rock formed from a meteorite impact. Shiny black, impact-generated glass was splashed on the side
