Apollo 16

Apollo 16 was the tenth crewed space flight in NASA's Apollo program. It was the 5th of six Apollo missions to land on the Moon. It was a J-Type mission, which meant that the astronauts would have a longer stay on the Moon. Launched on April 16, 1972, Ken Mattingly stayed in orbit around the Moon in the Apollo Command Module, Casper. He spent 3 days, 9 hours and 28 minutes by himself, the longest solo US space flight. On the Moon, astronauts John Young and Charles Duke got to put the Lunar Roving Vehicle ("moon buggy") through a series of tests, including s-turns, hairpin turns and quick stops. John Young was the commander of the mission.

A satellite was launched on the return journey to examine the Moon's mass and gravitation, space particles near the Moon, and the interaction of magnetic fields between the Moon and Earth. The mission was stopped one day early as there were several problems with the spacecraft.

References

Category:Apollo program
Category:1970s in spaceflight
Category:1972 in the United States