Word: cernan
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Much of the credit belongs to Gene Cernan, who had special reason for his all-out photographic effort. During the flight of Gemini 9 in 1966, he took a dramatic "walk" in space as his ship circled the earth. But most of the shots taken of Cernan by his fellow astronaut Tom Stafford were lost when a film pack accidently floated out of the open hatch and disappeared in space. Only one spacewalk picture-showing a partial view of Cernan-was returned to earth. That made Cernan more determined than ever to come home with a superior and complete photographic...
...lengths to which Space Photographer Cernan went to achieve his goal are particularly apparent in one shot. To crowd his fellow moon walker Jack Schmitt, the U.S. flag and the distant earth into one small frame, Cernan had to drop to his knees in his stiff space suit and thrust himself backward so that the chest-mounted camera could be properly aimed. To obtain a view of Schmitt and a giant boulder, Cernan insisted on scrambling up an incline. He also aimed and re-aimed until he was finally able to squeeze into one frame the lunar rover, Schmitt...
...lunar chronology. Apollo's cargo of rocks includes fragmented specimens called breccias that may have been formed far back in the moon's history, perhaps as long as 4 billion years ago. Even more important, perhaps, are the intriguing orange soil samples scraped up by Schmitt and Cernan at Shorty Crater. The soil may well provide evidence of relatively recent volcanic activity on the moon and could be the youngest lunar material ever brought back to earth. Said NASA Geologist Farouk El Baz: "The Apollo 17 site should give us clues to the real end of the lunar...
...Apollo's three-day homeward voyage, the astronauts had exceptionally smooth sailing. "America has found some fair winds and following seas," said Cernan after the main engine had successfully lifted the command ship out of lunar orbit. As the spacecraft emerged from behind the moon for the last time, the astronauts aimed their TV camera at the surface below and sent back the first live pictures of features on the backside that are invisible from earth, including the giant Tsiolkovsky Crater (named for the Russian space pioneer). Next day, some 180,000 miles from earth, Command Module Pilot Evans...
...their splashdown, the astronauts held a press conference in space, answering newsmen's questions , relayed to them by Mission Control. How did they feel about the decision to end the Apollo program and manned exploration of the moon? Cernan was outspoken, calling it "an abnormal restraint of man's intellect at this point in time." Next day, however, Richard Nixon had some reassuring words for the astronauts and NASA: "The making of space history will continue, and this nation means to play a major role in its making...The more we look back the more we are reminded...