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 
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Last liftoff from the Moon (two photos), [NASA] Apollo 17, 7-19 December 1972

printed 1972
vintage gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper 10 h × 8 w in (25 × 20 cm)
estimate: $1,000–1,500
result: $750
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These excellent pictures were transmitted by the RCA TV Camera mounted on the Lunar Rover and operated by Ed Fendell at Mission Control. The Lunar Rover was positioned at its final parking place about 150 meters east of the LM so that its TV camera could record the LM’s liftoff with its high-gain antenna pointed to Earth for transmission.
Numbered to verso of each photo '72-12-531' and '72-12-534' with RCA Astro-Electronics credit stamps.
literature: Apollo: The Epic Journey to the Moon, Reynolds, pg. 210 illustrates variation

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These excellent pictures were transmitted by the RCA TV Camera mounted on the Lunar Rover and operated by Ed Fendell at Mission Control.

The Lunar Rover was positioned at its final parking place about 150 meters east of the LM so that its TV camera could record the LM’s liftoff with its high-gain antenna pointed to Earth for transmission. Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spent 75 hours in the Taurus-Littrow mountainous region of the Moon, southeast of the Sea of Serenity.

At 4:54 pm on Thursday, December 14, 1972, the LM Challenger ascent stage lifted off, marking the end of the first manned exploration of another world. The LM engine emitted no visible flame on the airless Moon as the last astronauts left the surface.

“I thought about it when we left the surface... I knew it would be a long time. I just felt it might very well be a generation before we get back to the Moon. I’m probably going to be proven to be right.”

—Eugene Cernan (Chaikin, Voices, pg. 191)

From the mission transcript when the images were transmitted by the Rover TV camera:

188:01:27 Schmitt:

Ten seconds.

188:01:28 Cernan:

...10 seconds.

188:01:29 LM Crew:

Abort Stage.

188:01:30 Cernan:

...pushed. Engine Arm is Ascent.

188:01:32 Schmitt:

Okay. I’m going to get the Pro. (Pause) 99 Proceeded 3, 2, 1...

188:01:39 Schmitt:

Ignition.

188:01:40 Cernan:

We’re on our way, Houston!

188:01:43 Schmitt:

Rates are good. AGS saw it (that is, the ignition). (Pause)

188:01:48 LM Crew:

Pitchover!

188:01:51 Fullerton (Mission Control):

Roger. You have good thrust.

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