NASA Apollo 17 Patch 4"

Mission Objective
The lunar landing site was the Taurus-Littrow highlands and valley area. This site was picked for Apollo 17 as a location where rocks both older and younger than those previously returned from other Apollo missions, as well as from Luna 16 and 20 missions, might be found.

The mission was the final in a series of three J-type missions planned for the Apollo Program. These J-type missions can be distinguished from previous G- and H-series missions by extended hardware capability, larger scientific payload capacity and by the use of the battery-powered Lunar Roving Vehicle, or LRV.

Scientific objectives of the Apollo 17 mission included, geological surveying and sampling of materials and surface features in a preselected area of the Taurus-Littrow region; deploying and activating surface experiments; and conducting in-flight experiments and photographic tasks during lunar orbit and transearth coast. These objectives included deployed experiments, such as the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package, or ALSEP, with a heat flow experiment; lunar seismic profiling, or LSP; lunar surface gravimeter, or LSG; lunar atmospheric composition experiment, or LACE; and lunar ejecta and meteorites, or LEAM. The mission also included lunar sampling and lunar orbital experiments. Biomedical experiments included the Biostack II experiment and the BIOCORE experiment.

Crew
Eugene A. Cernan
Commander

Harrison H. Schmitt
Lunar Module Pilot

Ronald E. Evans
Command Module Pilot

Backup Crew
John W. Young
Commander

Charles M. Duke Jr.
Lunar Module Pilot

Stuart A. Roosa
Command Module Pilot

Payload
America (CM-114)
Challenger (LM-12)

Prelaunch Milestones
12/21/70 - S-IVB ondock at Kennedy
5/11/72 - S-IC ondock at Kennedy
6/20/72 - S-IU ondock at Kennedy
10/27/72 - S-II ondock at Kennedy

Launch
Dec. 7, 1972; 12:33 a.m. EST
Launch Pad 39A
Saturn-V SA-512
High Bay 3
Mobile Launcher Platform-3
Firing Room 1

The CSM, LM and S-IVB booster stage were inserted 11 minutes, 53 seconds after launch into an Earth parking orbit of 91.2 by 92.5 nautical miles. After two revolutions, at 8:45:37 a.m. GMT, Apollo 17 was inserted into translunar coast.

Orbit
Altitude: 105.86 miles
Inclination: 28.526 degrees
Orbits: 75 revolutions
Duration: 12 days, 13 hours, 52 minutes
Surface Time: 75 hours
Distance: 1,484,933.8 miles
Lunar Location: Taurus-Littrow
Lunar Coordinates: 20.16 degrees north, 30.77 degrees east

Landing
Dec. 19, 1972
Pacific Ocean
Recovery Ship: USS Ticonderoga

NASA Space Mission Patch Collectable Souvenir emblem from the U.K No.1 NASA Space Store.