Word: splashdowns
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...carrier, Apollo 17's command ship America emerged from the puffy clouds, drifting easily under its three billowing orange-and-white parachutes. Then, while a television-equipped helicopter hovered almost directly above it to give the world its first bird's-eye view of a splashdown, the command ship dropped into the gently rolling Pacific. Less than an hour later, Apollo 17's three astronauts-Navymen Gene Cernan and Ron Evans and slightly seasick Civilian Geologist Jack Schmitt-were safely aboard the carrier. "By golly," said Cernan, "it's good to be home...
...overhead in America. Then, after two more days of observing the moon from the orbiting command ship, the astronauts fired themselves out of lunar orbit and began the three-day journey home. By week's end, the final U.S. expedition to the moon was headed for its scheduled splashdown this week in the South Pacific, 400 miles south of Samoa...
Even to veteran splashdown watchers Apollo 16's return to earth last week was a spectacle of rare beauty. The slow blossoming of the spacecraft's three orange and white parachutes against the bright, azure sky seemed designed for maximum drama. Then, in a final demonstration of precision, the spacecraft Casper hit the water only one mile off the bow of the recovery carrier Ti-tonderoga. Once out of its natural element, Casper immediately capsized; it bobbed nose down in the choppy South Pacific for five minutes until the astronauts-strapped in upside-down and rapidly becoming queasy...
...their splashdown, the astronauts answered reporters' questions relayed by Mission Control during a televised press conference. "We've seen as much in ten days," Young concluded, "as most people see in ten lifetimes." He may have been too modest. For all of the mission's mishaps, the information gathered during the flight of Apollo 16 may well enable man to "see" back to the very beginnings of his world...
...time the demonstrators entered the newsroom, a videotape news report of the Apollo 16 splashdown was just ending. The station immediately ran several commercials and finally put on a station identification slide...