Apollo 17 Quotes

Funny thing happened on the way to the moon: not much,” wrote Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan. “Should have brought some crossword puzzles.

Apollo 17 would be the sixth and final flight to the Moon. In total, the American space program had taken the work of two and a half million people and had cost nearly $25 billion.

The last words spoken from the moon were from Eugene Cernan, Commander of the Apollo 17 Mission on 11 December 1972. "As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.

Everybody knows, a humungous thing happened on Sunday, July 20th, 1969 at exactly 4:17E.D.T. The 'Eagle' has landed. Bingo. Just like that. Man became an alien.

July 20, 1969: Apollo 11. November 19,1969: Apollo 12. February 5,1971: Apollo 14. July 30,1971: Apollo 15. July 30,1971: Apollo 16. December 11,1972: Apollo 17. The Soviets sent to the Moon the following unmanned Luna crafts: September 20, 1970: Luna 16. November 17, 1970: Luna 17. February 21,1972: Luna 20. January 16,1973: Luna 21. August 16, 1976: Luna

At the foot of the ladder, he [Gene Cernan Apollo 17] delivered the short speech he had memorized for the occasion. "Is like to just say what I believe history will record: That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return: with peace and hope for all mankind.

On December 7, 1972, the Apollo 17 astronauts took a photograph of a gibbous Earth at a distance of eighteen thousand miles from its surface. The photograph showed the planet, partially obscured by swirling clouds, floating all alone like a blue glass marble in the vast, black infinity of outer space. This historic image, dubbed the Blue Marble, became a symbol of the environmental movement and caused a profound shift in the way people conceived of the planet, shrinking it from something incomprehensibly immense and awesome into a fragile, lonely orb that you could cradle in the palm of your hand or crush beneath a careless heel.

I felt that I was literally standing on a plateau somewhere out there in space, a plateau that science and technology had allowed me to get to. But now what I was seeing and even more important what I was feeling at that moment in time, science and technology had no answers for, literally no answers because there I was and there you are, there you are, The Earth, dynamic, overwhelming, and I felt that the world had just too much purpose, too much logic, it was just too beautiful to have happened by accident. There has to be somebody bigger than you and bigger than me and I mean this in a spiritual sense not in a religious sense, there has to be a creator of the universe who stands above the religions that we ourselves create to govern our lives.” Gene Cernan Apollo 10 & 17

As everybody knows, a humungous thing happened on Sunday, July 20th, 1969, at exactly 4:17:41 E.D.T. The 'Eagle' has landed. Bingo. Just like that. Man became an alien.

16 Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? 17 If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye. 18 Let no man deceive himself. If any man thinketh that he is wise among you in this world, let him become a fool, that he may become wise. 19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He that taketh the wise in their craftiness: 20 and again, The Lord knoweth the reasonings of the wise, that they are vain. 21 Wherefore let no one glory in men. For all things are yours; 22 whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 23 and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.

In all likelihood, however, I would have been back-up commander of Apollo 14 and would have walked the moon on 17, the last of the series. But in June 1969 I couldn’t even count to seventeen, nor do I have any regrets today over the decision … Still, I watched Gene Cernan with more than average interest during that flight three and a half years later.