Apollo 16

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  06000 / 72031A Launch date - time  16 Apr 1972 - 17:54:00 UT Launch site  KSC, LC39A Launch vehicle  Saturn V (SA-511) Payload  Apollo CSM 113 Size (m)  11.15 long - 3.91 dia Mass at launch (kg)  46837 Flight Crew  Young, John (CDR) Mattingly, Thomas (CMP) Duke, Charles (LMP) Call Sign  Caspar / Orion Backup crew  Haise, Mitchell, Roosa Earth orbit on Apr 16 (19:12 UT):    - Perigee / Apogee  169 / 178 km    - Inclination  32.56°    - Period  87:82 min Orbital parameters on 17 Apr (0:00 UT):    - Perigee / Apogee  200 / 572080 km    - Inclination  33.2°    - Period  26320 min Selenocentric orbit on 19 Apr (20:24 UT): Landing date - time  27 Apr 1972 - 19:45:05 UT Landing location  0° N, 156°W 2000 km south of Hawaii in Pacific Ocean Flight Duration (d:hr:min)  11:01:51 Nbr Earth orbits  1,5 Nbr lunar orbits

Crew

Flight details:

Apollo astronaut demonstrates low lunar gravity. - Credit: NASA.

John Young works at the LRV near the LM Orion on Apollo 16 in April 1972. Credit: NASA

Charlie Duke stands on the surface of the Moon during Apollo 16 in April 1972. Photo Credit: NASA

Official NASA Account of the Mission from Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions, by W. David Compton, published as NASA SP-4214 in the NASA History Series, 1989.
Apollo 16 blasted off from Kennedy Space Center at 12:54 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on April 16, 1972. Command module Casper and lunar module Orion arrived in lunar orbit three days later. All systems functioned well until Orion separated from the command module; a malfunctioning component in the main propulsion system caused Houston to delay the lunar module's descent for nearly six hours while it was checked out. When Mission Control was satisfied, Orion fired its descent engine and landed easily on the plain at Descartes at 9:33 p.m. EST on April 20.

In the next 71 hours mission commander John Young and lunar module pilot Charles Duke laid out the surface instruments and conducted three traverses in their lunar rover, covering in all some 27 kilometers (nearly 17 miles). While they were busy on the surface, Ken Mattingly in Casper was occupied with operating the instruments in the service module. The only serious mishap on the surface occurred when Young tripped over the cable to the heat-flow sensors, pulling it loose from the central station and incapacitating the experiment.

Young and Duke finished their exploration, loaded the 96 kilograms (210 pounds) of samples they had collected into Orion , and rejoined Mattingly in lunar orbit on April 23. They released the moon-orbiting subsatellite, but because of recurring problems with the service propulsion system, the spacecraft was not in the optimum orbit for the satellite. As a result, the satellite crashed into the moon after only five weeks. During the four-day return flight they conducted additional experiments with electrophoresis, a technique that offered advantages for separating certain biological preparations that could not be efficiently done in a gravity field. A normal landing in the Pacific, north of Christmas Island, completed the mission On April 27.