WATCH VIDEO: Apollo 11's Impact on the Space Race
The astronauts drove their battery-powered lunar rover more than 20 miles across the moon’s surface—despite a fender bender. When a hammer Cernan accidentally dropped knocked a wheel fender off the rover, the astronauts crafted a replacement by duct taping four stiff maps together and attaching the makeshift flap to the fender with two clamps. The Auto Body Association of America bestowed lifetime memberships upon the pair for their makeshift fix.
During their second moonwalk, the astronauts were exploring the rim of Shorty Crater when Schmitt exclaimed, “There is orange soil!” Cernan confirmed the colorful find amid the gray dust: “He’s not going out of his wits. It really is.”
According to NASA Chief Historian Brian Odom, the samples collected by the astronauts from the crater rim were found to be composed of volcanic glass formed during a volcanic explosion. “The samples tell us that volcanic material originated from the moon and not from a meteorite impact,” he says. The discovery is considered one of the most important of the entire Apollo program.
The Last Men on the Moon
Before concluding the mission’s third and final moonwalk, the astronauts offered epitaphs for the Apollo program. “This valley of history has seen mankind complete its first evolutionary steps into the universe,” said Schmitt, who later represented New Mexico in the U.S. Senate. “I think no more significant contribution has Apollo made to history.”
“America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow,” Cernan said. “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.” Before taking humanity’s last steps on the moon, the commander knelt and scratched his daughter’s initials in the lunar dust. Challenger blasted off from the moon and left behind a plaque that reads: “Here man completed his first explorations of the moon.”
Cernan and Schmitt spent 22 hours and 4 minutes outside the lunar module, surpassing the entire time that Apollo 11 spent at Tranquility Base. Public interest, however, could not compare to the historic moonwalk by Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.
After five previous lunar landings, familiarity bred apathy among the American public. While fledgling cable television channels broadcast live video of the moonwalks, the three broadcast networks aired highlights that were largely confined to late night. ABC squeezed in coverage of the first moonwalk during halftime of Monday Night Football. “The fact is that pictures, no matter how incredibly good their technical quality, of barren moonscapes and floating astronauts become ordinary and even tedious rather quickly,” reported the New York Times.
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