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December 6 1972 eugene cernan

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veteran astronaut and commander of

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Apollo 17 it would be the last Apollo

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astronaut to stand on the surface of the

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dr. Harrison Schmitt better known as

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Jack he would be the first geologist to

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set foot on an alien world Ronald Evans

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command module pilot he would remain in

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lunar orbit operating a battery of

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experiments that would take this last

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close look at the moon in the year 1675

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Sir Isaac Newton was asked by his fellow

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scientist Robert Hooke how he had

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accomplished so much if I have seen

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further Newton wrote it is by standing

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the engines will build up to a truck of

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7.6 million pounds we have a cut-off at

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minus 30 second his cutoff was automatic

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done by the sequencer one command

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pressurized yes for B stage was not

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given and despite the fact that it was

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going to be done manually the sequencer

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and the fact that said I didn't tell you

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to do it therefore you can't be doing it

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for 30 seconds that very properly

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stopped the operation most of the work

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was being done right off the firing room

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in the launch control center at Kennedy

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however there was a great deal of

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support from the Marshall Space Flight

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Center who had a comparable operational

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group working there with their

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contractors so we concluded that we were

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safe and we gave the word to jump route

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17 you said you are go for orbit go for

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after checking out the spacecraft in

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Earth orbit they burned out of orbit and

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we're in the middle of a snowstorm

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Ron Eben's at the controls of the

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command module America moved into dock

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with the lunar module Challenger they

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pulled challenger free of the Boosters

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third stage and continued the three-day

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Coast of the moon even as Cernan II

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Evans and Schmidt headed toward the moon

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directly below the Apollo 17 control

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room flight director Don puttin around

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his crew through a launch simulation for

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the first Skylab as you're probably well

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aware we are still working on other

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programs

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Skylab being the prime effort starting

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in the spring of next year we're also

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working on the cooperative mission with

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the Russians

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which will take place in 1975 and of

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course we've got quite a few of the

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flight control team as well as other

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center elements involved in the work on

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the shuttle so it's it's the start of a

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new era

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I hope Skylab of course will fly in the

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spring of next year with three men going

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up and spending 28 days and then two

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months later after they land we'll put

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three men up to 56 days they'll come

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down and thirty days later another three

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will go 56 days so a year of 73 calendar

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year will certainly be a busy one from a

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December 10th 1970 to America and

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Challenger went into orbit around the

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for the challenge ahead the next day

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December 11 Cernan and Schmitt entered

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she looks pretty an earth why did you do

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you're not clear

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with the command module in the distance

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they passed over their landing place a

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valley in an area of the moon called

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taurus littrow here they hope to find

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the youngest material yet sampled and

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okay

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that's super

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11 sunan Lane Smith the lunar module to

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begin their first EDA their first job

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was to unload equipment including their

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rover the electric car in which they

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would drive to the exploration sites as

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Cernan drove the equipment Laden rover

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Schmidt carried the scientific

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experiments package called Elsa in

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Houston scientists in the science

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support room watched correlating and

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directing their movements Schmidt set up

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the various experiments Cernan drilled a

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series of holes

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both to collect core samples and to

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yeah it's 29 minutes from now but

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remember they left this side a little

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bit late on the moon and on the earth

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they were fighting time now there are

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just so many hours of oxygen and water

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in the backpacks so many hours of life

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in the vacuum of the moon they're

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awfully they'll break the whole world

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before they'll break the cable this time

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with the alsep functioning they left the

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site for a shortened sampling traverse

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well many parts of the else upper

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functioning very well the heat flow

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experiment is working excellently it's

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transmitting back temperature data the

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cooling down is still cooling down from

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the drilling process and in a few hours

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they should be starting to get true heat

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it was time to head back to the

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Challenger activate experiments and get

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back inside as the astronauts rested

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Engineers in two nations were working

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out technical problems of the

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apollo-soyuz test program the first

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joint mission is to provide a compatible

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docking system and demonstrate do we

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have compatible operational procedures

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that were left to different countries

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dock in space I think more than added as

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a certainly a symbolic meaning of these

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two large powers learning to work

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together in space which I believe are

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the new seas of mankind a new frontiers

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and work out solutions the problems were

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in although we're very competitive we

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could still be cooperative and assist

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each other and I think that this Paolo

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they would have won tests before they

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got to work exploring the previous day

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they had broken a rear fender of the

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rover the dust thrown up was causing

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trouble Apollo 16 commander John Young

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had worked that night in a pressure suit

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on a way to fix the fender on the moon

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the astronauts put it together the

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fenders section formed from a lunar map

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molded with tape then held in place with

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clamps from the lunar module telescope

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it was a repair that would last the

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then Schmidt moved out to place one of

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several explosive packages which would

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be detonated after they left the moon

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mapping the lunar subsurface much as

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Cernan would pick him up in the rover

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for the drive to the first sight on this

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bottom of the core is not food is very

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jagged and fragmental like geez finished

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with the core - then we should be able

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Oh Jack Schmidt having a few problems

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they would sample several locations on

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this evap the men would cause more

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excitement than the find at the crater

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called I think it's the most exciting we

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will come across since the beginning of

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the photo program I believe that it's

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going to be the most rewarding of all

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the fine to do it no matter which what

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you want to do they gotta leave it a

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they had to leave shorty crater and it's

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orange soil and push on time the enemy

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of the lunar investigator on the moon

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the precious minutes had run out

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returned to the rover drive back to the

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Challenger closeout EBA to the last

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Apollo crew worked on the moon the

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engineers on earth prepared for

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tomorrow's day in space I have a model

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here of the space shuttle as you see it

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resembles a dela wing airplane on top of

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propulsion system system is going to be

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designed so all the costly parts are

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reusable now that we're beginning to

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understand space we're beginning to

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understand the potential economic

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potential the need is to bring a larger

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array of instrumentation up in the space

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need to provide man with a real

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capability to work up in space December

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13th yesterday they had explored the

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south end of the valley today they would

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is the last time you don't really go to

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bat for us something we know you'll do

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Apollo science will continue and I'm

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sure my to the mysteries will continue

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to come out for many years to come

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but of this I'm sure man has learned

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that space is his to explore and man

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will return to space to explore to the

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moon and beyond I'm firmly convinced

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that it's changed the whole basis of

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philosophy including religion I don't

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think that we've begun to see what the

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era of spaceflight really is that we've

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got a long way to go and I hope I'm

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living when we leave this solar system

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on a venture to find another planet

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once more it was time gene cernan and

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Jack Schmidt returned to the rover to

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drive back to Challenger but before they

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left the surface of the Moon there would

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be a brief and a final word from the

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while Cernan and Schmitt closed out the

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last moon walk and prepared for

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tomorrow's liftoff Ron Evans worked on

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in orbit photograph observe describe

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keep operating the cameras and

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experiments in the science experiments

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Bay in orbit as on the surface the

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seconds are precious how is the

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experiment working now working extremely

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well we're looking for subsurface

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geologic structure in the broad sense

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layering for example radiometer measures

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the temperature of the moon and makes a

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an accurate map of the temperature

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beneath the spacecraft it is working

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the experiment itself games the hardware

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is working perfectly precisely the way

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it was supposed to work everything is

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functioned properly an important part of

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the experiment is it requires the man to

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on the descent stage of Challenger

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forever on the moon they left a plank

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reading here man completed his first

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explorations of the moon December 1972

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ad may the spirit of peace in which we

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came be reflected in the lives of all

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mankind one revolution later Cernan and

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Schmitt caught up with Evans and

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prepared for docking December 16 burn

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December 17 170 thousand miles from

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Evans was retrieving film canisters from

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the two cameras and the lunar sounding

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radar data vital to the scientists on

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earth before he got back inside Evans

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took a last look at the crescent earth

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December 19

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they rode inside a 5,000 degree fireball

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through the atmosphere of Earth stowed

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in a spacecraft almost 250 pounds of the

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this closes a golden chapter in the age

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of space exploration in a way it brings

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the close to what has been a very

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romantic error in space exploration but

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I want to make this very strong the book

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is still being written the moon a lonely

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world in the absence of man but here we

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have left our mark a signature attesting

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a legacy to future generations we stood

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on the shoulders of giants and touched