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 
429

The Grand Finale of Project Apollo: the Last Men on the Moon safely back to Earth on board USS Ticonderoga (two photos), NASA [Apollo 17], 19 December 1972

printed 1972
vintage gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper 10 h × 8 w in (25 × 20 cm)
estimate: $800–1,200
result: $228
own a similar item?
free evaluation

On December 19, 1972 the safe return of the Apollo 17 Command Module America with Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison H. Schmitt on board successfully closed the extraordinary voyage initiated by President Kennedy a little more than a decade earlier. Project Apollo had been, as National Geographic called it, “Man’s Greatest Adventure”.
Numbered to versos '72-H-1564' and '72-H-1569' with NASA HQ captions.

print

The Apollo 17 Command Module America with Eugene Cernan, Ronald Evans and Harrison H. Schmitt on board splashdown occurred at 1:24:59 p.m. (CST), December 19, 1972, about 350 nautical miles southeast of Samoa, successfully closing the extraordinary voyage initiated by President Kennedy a little more than a decade earlier. Project Apollo had been, as National Geographic called it, “man’s greatest adventure.”

APOLLO 17 PACIFIC RECOVERY AREA Apollo 17 crewmen Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans and Harrison H. Schmitt speak with U.S. Navy pararescueman in life raft while awaiting helicopter pickup to recovery vessel, the USS Ticonderoga, located about 7.4 km (4 nautical miles) from their spacecraft’s splashdown point. The astronauts concluded NASA’s last mission in the Apollo lunar landing program when their spacecraft carried them to a safe landing in the Pacific Ocean at 2:25 p.m; EST today, 648 kilometers (350 nautical miles) southeast of American Samoa. [NASA caption]

The second photograph shows the three-man crew of astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans, and Harrison H. Schmitt, who were picked up by helicopter and flown to the deck of the recovery ship “USS Ticonderoga,” where they addresses personnel and guests about an hour after their safe splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. They piloted the last manned lunar landing in the Apollo program. Their spacecraft was later hoisted aboard the USS Ticonderoga.

429