![]() ![]() ![]() He had pushed NASA to continue the Apollo programme, arguing that humans could do better science than robot landers. Schmitt, meanwhile, was a geologist - still the only professional scientist to walk on the Moon. Cernan was looking to gain the status of Moon-walker, which he had just missed in 1969 as lunar-module pilot on Apollo 10, the practice run for Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s successful landing with Apollo 11 a couple of months later. But to what end?Īs Cernan and Schmitt guided their lunar module into the narrow Taurus–Littrow valley, each had a personal mission. Humanity is about to make a giant leap again. But with the launch last month of the Artemis I mission, NASA finally seems to be intent on rekindling the glory days of Apollo. The $93-billion plan to put astronauts back on the Moonįor most of the eight billion people now on Earth, the Apollo era is legend the main significance of the photograph of a ‘blue marble’ Earth taken from Apollo 17 is as one of the default iPhone wallpapers. Apollo 17 still marks the last time boots crunched into the soil of an alien world the last time astronauts skipped joyously in the Moon’s low gravity the last time anyone directly witnessed Earth’s blue globe rising above the grey lunar horizon. ![]() But few anticipated that, 50 years on, human exploration of space would be confined to low Earth orbit. When Cernan, fellow Moon-walker Harrison Schmitt and command-module pilot Ronald Evans had blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida seven days earlier, it was already clear that this would be the last Apollo mission. After 50 years, they remain the last (officially prepared) words spoken on the Moon. With Neil Armstrong’s “one giant leap for mankind”, little more than three years earlier, they bookended a grand human endeavour. These words were spoken by Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan on 14 December 1972, as he prepared to return home from the Moon. 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. Credit: NASAĪs I take man’s last step from the surface, back home for some time to come - but we believe not too long into the future - I’d like to just say what I believe history will record: that America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow. This was something a senior officer from the Council during the war years would have undertaken as part of their duties.Ībout 400 children and school staff attended the event which has taken place annually over a number of years.In 1972, three years after humans first reached the Moon, Apollo 17 commander Eugene Cernan was the last to leave it. To enable the evacuation to take place a trip on the train from Havenstreet to Smallbrook and Wootton was also undertaken and the children had to look out for a bomb on the line!Ī Home Guard sergeant and a land army girl were on hand to explain to the children what life was going to be like in the village and just what to do with a gas mask on your way to the air-raid shelter.Īctivities were across several days and on one morning the Chairman of Isle of Wight Council, Cllr Charles Chapman, made a visit to Havenstreet where he was only too pleased to join in the serious business of making sure all the children were placed with a family who were willing to take on the added responsibility of an evacuee. Activities included playing with toys from the 1940’s and before, having a lesson in a war-time class room, which was disrupted by an air-raid siren, learning about rationing and shortage of food and tasting food such as fish paste, carrot spread and egg-less cake. ![]()
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