ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS

[Music] December 6 1972 Eugene Cernan veteran astronaut and commander of Apollo 17 he would be the last Apollo astronaut to stand on the surface of the Moon dr. Harrison Schmitt better known as Jack he would be the first geologist to set foot on an alien world on Elevens command module pilot he would remain in lunar orbit operating a battery of experiments that would take this last close look at the moon in the year 1675 Sir Isaac Newton was asked by his fellow scientist Robert Hooke how he had accomplished so much if I have seen further in Newton roads it is by standing on the shoulders of giants [Music] [Music] the engines were build up to a truck of 7.6 million pounds we haven't cut off we have a cut off at t-minus 30 seconds this cutoff was automatic done by the sequencer one command pressurized yes for weekdays was not given and the fact that manually can't be doing yet 30 seconds the very properly stopped the operation most of the work was being done right off the fire room in the launch control center at Kennedy however there was a great deal of support from the microstate place center who had a comfortable operational group working there with their contractor so we concluded that we were safe and we gave the word to jump route the one thing when proceed which we did it [Music] [Music] left a music you're a go for it go for it [Music] after checking out the spacecraft in Earth orbit they burned out of orbit and headed toward the moon and wearing the metal that he knows car Donavan at the controls of the command module America will Bend the dock with the lunar module Challenger they pull challenger free of the Boosters first and then continued the three-day coast of the moment even though sir nonny Evans and Schmitt headed toward the moon directly below the Apollo 17 control room flight director Don putting his crew to a launch simulation for the first Skylab being the prime effort starting in the spring of the next year we're also working on the cooperative mission with the Russians which will take place in 1975 and of course we've got quite a few of the flight control team as well as others in elements involved in the work on the shuttle so it's it's the start of a new era I hope Skylab of course will fly in the spring of next year with three men going up and spending 28 days and then two months later after they land we'll put three men up to 56 days they'll come down and 30 days later another three will go 56 days so the year of 73 calendar year will certainly be a busy one from the standpoint of manned spaceflight December 10th 1970 to America and Challenger went into orbit around the moon arrived on station for the character head the next day December 11 Turner and Smith entered the lunar module and undone you look pretty in earth light in your new in sunlight [Music] have a good a lot clearer with the command module in the distance they passed over their landing place a valley in an area of the moon called taurus littrow here they hope to find the youngest material yet samples and direct evidence of lunar volcanoes [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] velocity 80 feet going down and three [Music] dip a little dance down about to touch down stand by 25 feet down - feels good [Music] you can tell America that gelateria the toilet roll December 11 soon Lena Schmidt left the lunar module to begin [Music] their first job was to unload equipment including their Rover the electric car in which they would drive to the exploration sites as Cernan drove the equipment Laden Rover Schmidt carried the scientific experiments package called l7 Houston scientists in the science support room watched correlating and directing their movements should set up the various experiments Cernan drilled a series of holes both to collect core samples and to implant experimental probes [Applause] it's 29 minutes from now but remember they left this side a little bit late on the moon and on the earth they were fighting time now there are just so many hours of oxygen and water in the backpacks so many hours of life in the vacuum of the Moon they're awfully they'll break the whole worlds before they'll break the cable with my map with the alsep functioning they left the site for a shortened sampling traverse well many parts are they all set for functioning very well the heat source Berlin is working excellently it's transmitting back temperature data the cooling down is still cooling down from the drilling process and in a few hours they should be starting to get true peaceful information it was time to head back to the Challenger activate experiments and get back inside as the astronauts rested Engineers in two nations were working out technical problems of the apollo-soyuz test program the first joint Russian and American space mission joint mission is to prove a very compatible docking and demonstrate do we have compatible operational procedures that will of two different countries dock in Spain I think more than that it has a certainty of symbolic meaning of these two large powers learning to work together in space which I believe are the new C's of mankind and frontiers and work out solutions the problems were in although we're very competitive we'd still be cooperative assist each other and I think this is apollo-soyuz program they would have won in tests before they got to work exploring the previous day they had broken a rear fender of the rover the dust shown up was causing trouble Apollo 16 commander John Young had worked that night in a pressure suit on a way to fix the fender on the moon the astronauts put it together the fenders section formed from a lunar map molded with tape then held in place with clamps from the lunar module telescope it was a repair that would last the remainder of the mission then Schmidt moved out to place one of several explosive packages which could be detonated after they left the moon mapping the lunar subsurface much as earthly geologists explore for oil Cernan would pick him up in the rover will to drive to the first sight on this Traverse station to there somewhere along the stream where they can see so they must be anyway because the bottom of the core is not smooth eternity and track metal like core - then we should be able to go if we now that jack schmitt having a few problems they would sample several locations on this EBS one would cause more excitement than I think the most exciting we will it's going to be the most they gotta leave it a third time regardless of what we got they have to leave shorty crater and it's orange soil and cuishan time the enemy of the lunar investigator on the moon and on earth [Music] the precious minutes had run out return to the rover drive back to the Challenger pulls out eta2 as the last Apollo crew worked on the moon the engineers on earth prepared for tomorrow's day in the space I have a model here of the Space Shuttle as you see it resembles a double wing airplane on top of propulsion system system there's gonna be designed so all the costly parts are reusable now that we're beginning to understand space where we gonna understand the potential economic potential the need is to bring larger arrays of instrumentation up in space we need to provide man with the real capability of work up in space December 13 yesterday they had explored the south end of the valley today they would go north the last time for you to really good at bad for us the only program we know you'll do it for that man that's rough country in there Apolo science will continue and I'm sure much of the mysteries will continue to come out for many years to come but of this I'm sure man has learned that space is his to explore and man will return to space to explore to the moon and beyond I'm firmly convinced that it's changed the whole basis of philosophy including religion I don't think that we've begun to see what the era of spaceflight really is and we've got a long way to go and I hope I'm living when we leave this solar system on a venture to find another planet Earth once more it was time Gene Cernan and Jack Schmitt returned to the rover to drive back to Challenger but before they left the surface of the Moon there would be a brief and a final word from the last man on the moon while Cernan and Schmitt closed out the last moon walk and prepared for tomorrow's liftoff Ron Eben's worked on in orbit photograph observed described keep operating the cameras and experiments in the science experiment stay in orbit as on the surface the seconds are precious layering for example radiometer measures the temperature of the moon and they say an accurate map of the temperature the feminine selfie mr. hardware is working nicely the way it's supposed to work everything is functioning properly an important part of the experiment is this requires the man to operate it and I proceeded three two one thanks for good egg do you have good luck [Applause] [Music] on the descent stage of Challenger forever on the moon they left the plank reading here man completed his first explorations of the moon December 1972 ad made the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind one revolution later Cernan and Schmitt caught up with Evans and prepared for docking December 16 burnin out of lunar orbit and head home December 17 170 thousand miles from Earth Ron Eben's left the command module [Music] [Music] evans was retrieving film canisters from the two cameras and the lunar sounding radar data vital to the scientists on earth before he got back inside evans took a last look at the crescent earth in two more days they would be home [Music] December 19 they rode inside a 5,000 degree fireball through the atmosphere of their stowed in the spacecraft almost 250 pounds of the moon [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] this closes a golden chapter in the age of space exploration in a way brings the close to what has been a very romantic error in space exploration but I want to make this very strong the book is still being written the moon a lonely world in the absence of man but here we have left our mark a signature attesting a legacy to future generations we stood on the shoulders of giants and touch the moon [Music]