One Giant Leap for Mankind: Vintage Photographs from the Victor Martin-Malburet Collection 
28 October 2022
One Giant Leap for Mankind: Vintage Photographs from the Victor Martin-Malburet Collection 
418

The last farewell to the Moon: Eugene Cernan unveiling a commemorative plaque on the LM Challenger, Harrison Schmitt [Apollo 17], 7-19 December 1972, EVA 3

printed 1972
large format vintage chromogenic print on matte fiber-based paper flush-mounted on original NASA KSC card 11 h × 14 w in (28 × 36 cm)
estimate: $2,000–3,000
result: $438
own a similar item?
free evaluation

As a lunar farewell, a dust-covered Eugene Cernan (right) unveiled a plaque below the ladder of the Lunar Module Challenger before climbing back into the capsule for takeoff. On December 14, 1972, he became the last man to walk on the Moon. Left behind on the lunar lander’s descent stage, the plaque read: “Here Man completed his first exploration of the Moon, December 1972 A.D. May the spirit in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind.”
[NASA image AS17-134-20482]
literature: Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences, Chaikin, pg. 74 illustrates variation

print

As a lunar farewell, a dust-covered Eugene Cernan (right) unveiled a plaque below the ladder of the Lunar Module Challenger before climbing back into the capsule for takeoff. On December 14, 1972, he became the last man to walk on the Moon.

Left behind on the lunar lander’s descent stage, the plaque read: “Here Man completed his first exploration of the Moon, December 1972 A.D. May the spirit in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind.”

From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:

169:46:38 Cernan:

To commemorate not just Apollo 17’s visit to the Valley of Taurus-Littrow but as an everlasting commemoration of what the real meaning of Apollo is to the world, we’d like to uncover a plaque that has been on the leg of our spacecraft that we have climbed down many times over the last 3 days.

169:47:19 Cernan:

And I’ll read what that plaque says to you. First of all, it has a picture of the world. Two pictures. One of the North America and one of South America. The other covers the other half of the world including Africa, Asia, Europe, Australia, covers the North Pole and the South Pole. In between these two hemispheres, we have a pictorial view of the Moon, a pictorial view of where all the Apollo landings have been made; so that when this plaque is seen again by others who come, they will know where it all started. The words are, “Here man completed his first exploration of the Moon, December 1972 A.D. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind.” It’s signed, “Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans, Harrison H. Schmitt, and most prominently, Richard M. Nixon, President of the United States of America.” This is our commemoration that will be here until someone like us, until some of you who are out there, who are the promise of the future, come back to read it again and to further the exploration and the meaning of Apollo.

418