By the time of Apollo 16‘s April 16, 1972, launch, traveling to the Moon was, if not routine, at least a more confident affair. When astronauts John Young and Charlie Duke stepped off the ladder of the Lunar Module (LM) Orion onto the lunar surface, “there wasn’t any tentative step,” Duke later said. “It was just: Jump off and start work.”
When Duke and Young hit the regolith, it marked the first time that astronauts had set foot in the rugged lunar highlands. Apollo 16’s landing site was Descartes, a region some 7,400 feet (2,250 meters) higher than the Sea of Tranquillity, where Apollo 11 had touched down. Researchers believed the Descartes hills had been formed by lava flows and would yield volcanic material — like igneous rocks — older than the maria where Apollos 11 and 12 had landed.
For the laconic Young, the mission’s commander, it was the second trip to the Moon, having orbited it as the Command Module Pilot (CMP) on Apollo 10. He was also a veteran of the Gemini program, having flown on Gemini 3 and commanded Gemini 10. Duke, the mission’s Lunar Module Pilot, was an enthusiastic rookie; Apollo 16 would be his first and only spaceflight. Ken Mattingly had been slated to fly as CMP on Apollo 13 but was grounded after being exposed to the measles and shifted to Apollo 16.
All the while, uncertainty hung over the future of NASA. Political support for crewed space exploration had cooled. U.S. Vice President Spiro Agnew, speaking to launch controllers at Kennedy Space Center shortly after launch, joked, “I think you are getting a little bit bored with this thing, aren’t you?” But even with the end of Apollo in sight, the crew of 16 delivered.
