This week in 1972, Apollo 17, the final crewed lunar-landing mission, launched from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The scientific mission, which included three days on the lunar surface, was the third to employ the Lunar Roving Vehicle that was developed and managed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. From left, astronauts Harrison Schmitt, Eugene Cernan and Ronald Evans are photographed with a lunar rover trainer and the mission’s Saturn V rocket, which was also developed and managed by Marshall. Today, Marshall is developing NASA’s Space Launch System, the most powerful rocket ever built that will be capable of sending astronauts deeper into space than ever before, including to an asteroid and Mars. The NASA History Program is responsible for generating, disseminating and preserving NASA’s remarkable history and providing a comprehensive understanding of the institutional, cultural, social, political, economic, technological and scientific aspects of NASA’s activities in aeronautics and space. For more pictures like this one and to connect to NASA’s history, visit the History Program’s webpage.
Image credit: NASA