Cold Open

It’s just after 2:40 PM, on December 11th, 1972, 238,000 miles from Earth.

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt stares intently at the instruments of the Apollo 17 Lunar Landing Module. As the spacecraft, named Challenger, descends toward the moon, Jack calls out its altitude and speed. Standing beside him in the cramped module is mission commander Gene Cernan. His eyes are fixed on the window, and his hands grip the controls.

Apollo 17 is moments away from landing on the moon.

Jack is the less experienced of the two astronauts - he’s never been to space before. In fact, unlike the other men who have made the journey here before him, he isn’t even a pilot - he’s a geologist and Jack hopes to become the first scientist to land on the moon, but he and Gene have to get Challenger down safely first.

Their target is the Taurus-Littrow valley. It’s been chosen for its fascinating geology, but it’s a challenging place to land in. Drift off too far one way and they risk crashing into a mountain, too far another and they could end up in a giant crater. The Lunar lander weighs 16 tons and is notoriously difficult to control - Neil Armstrong overshot the Apollo 11 landing site by more than 4 miles, and Jack knows if they do the same today, their mission may be over before it begins.

He and Gene have trained hard for this moment, though. And as the moon looms ever larger outside their windows, both astronauts remain calm.

In just 12 minutes, they’ve traveled hundreds of miles and descended more than 35,000 feet out of lunar orbit. Now, the surface is almost within touching distance. Jack calls out their descent speed as they get closer and closer:

JACK SCHMITT: "Going down about two. Very little dust. Very little dust."

Gene feathers the controls, using the thrusters to slow the craft down even more.

Then, the contact light on the console illuminates, and they shut down the engines. With a gentle thud, Challenger drops to the moon’s surface. Jack and Gene quickly run through their post-landing checklist, but Jack is already giddy with excitement and can’t help looking out the window.

JACK SCHMITT: “Oh man! Look at that rock out there!”

GENE CERNAN: “Absolutely incredible”

They’ve ended up only 600 feet from their target site. It may have been a textbook landing, but the real work is just beginning. Jack and Gene are about to begin the most ambitious exploration of the lunar surface ever attempted.

For Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, the stakes of this mission couldn’t be higher - because he’s not only Apollo’s first scientist-astronaut, he’s also its last. Apollo 17 will be the final mission in America’s lunar program. And with no idea when or if a scientist will ever return to the moon, Jack knows he needs to make every moment count. He and Commander Gene Cernan will have almost three days on the surface, longer than any mission before. But for Jack, the time will pass all too quickly, and he’ll feel like he’s only just getting started when he steps outside Challenger for the very last moonwalk of the Apollo program on December 13th, 1972.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is December 13th, 1972: The Last Men on the Moon.

Act One: The Scientist Astronaut

It’s winter 1965, above Williams Air Force Base in Arizona, seven years before the flight of Apollo 17.

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt’s T38 jet is climbing rapidly. Less than 90 seconds after take-off, he's reached 40,000 feet and is cleared to fly at supersonic speed. He takes a breath and then pushes the throttle. In moments, a sonic boom thunders to the ground below, and Jack has become one of the elite few who have flown faster than the speed of sound.

But Jack isn’t in the military, and he isn’t a pilot. In fact, just six months ago, he had never flown a plane in his life. Jack is a civilian, a geologist, and one of five men selected by NASA for a new initiative.

In the four years since Alan Shepard became the first American in space, all astronauts have been military men, but with the Apollo program in full swing, NASA has recognized there should be space for scientists on their missions to the moon.

Jack has a degree from CalTech and a PhD from Harvard, and he is desperate to go where no scientist has before. But it's not easy to become an astronaut. By the time he goes supersonic in the skies above Arizona, Jack has already spent months training. But it’s not until August 1966 that he finally qualifies as a pilot.

For the next few years, though, his biggest contribution to the Apollo program comes on the ground. He trains other astronauts in geology and how to apply it on the moon. Jack is always happy to help out. But what he really wants is a spot on a mission.

Then in March 1970, Jack gets the news he’s been waiting for. Eight months after Apollo 11 completed the first successful moon landing, Jack is named as the reserve lunar module pilot for Apollo 15. Crews work on a rotation, so this means Jack is likely to go to the moon on Apollo 18 and he’s elated - it’s a momentous day, not just for himself but for science.

Jack’s excitement doesn’t last long, though.

Budget cutbacks have already led to the cancellation of the final planned mission, Apollo 20. Then, in September 1970, missions 18 and 19 are also cut. Suddenly, Jack’s place in the rotation is gone.

Apollo 17 is now likely to be the last manned moon landing for many decades. And by tradition, the Apollo 17 crew should be the reserve astronauts from Apollo 14. But America’s scientific community rallies behind sending Jack instead. They argue that if this is to be the final mission to the moon, there’s no point in sending yet another pilot who’s taken a few geology classes - it’s time to send a geologist who's become a pilot.

It’s an agonizing wait for Jack as the powers that be weigh their options, but eventually, NASA decides that he will be the lunar module pilot for Apollo 17. A scientist will be landing on the moon after all.

***

It’s December 6th, 1972, and Kennedy Space Centre is buzzing with excitement. An estimated half a million people have traveled from all over America to witness the nighttime launch of Apollo 17.

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt, his commander Gene Cernan, and the Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans sit at the top of the 36-story tall Saturn V rocket and wait for blast-off.

For Jack and Ron, Apollo 17 will be their first trip into space. But even for the more experienced Gene, this is a tense moment - the launch is the riskiest part of any mission and, with millions of pounds of rocket fuel about to be ignited, if anything goes wrong, it will be disastrous. Adrenaline courses through Jack’s veins as the countdown enters the final minute. But then, with just thirty seconds left to go, a warning sounds, and take-off is suddenly aborted.

Strapped into their seats in the capsule, all Jack, Gene, and Ron can do is hope. The launch window is open only until 1:31 AM - miss it and the mission will be delayed, possibly even canceled. For the astronauts, it's a frustrating wait.

The engineers on the ground take their time, but eventually, they establish that this was an automatic abort triggered by a problem they had already fixed. After a nearly three-hour delay, and with just minutes to spare, the launch is back on.

Jack Schmitt lies on his back in the command module and listens to the familiar voice from mission control counting them down to zero.

Then the rocket ignites in a brilliant flash, and night becomes day as the Saturn V slowly clears the tower. It is the most spectacular launch of all Apollo missions.

Within ten minutes, Apollo 17 will be over 100 miles up and traveling at more than 7,000 miles per hour. That will make Jack Schmitt a fully-fledged astronaut. And soon, he will join an even more elite club - he will become a moonwalker.

Act Two: Walking on the Moon

It’s December 7th, 1972, 18,000 miles from Earth, a few hours after the launch of Apollo 17.

Harrison “Jack” Schmitt is traveling through space at thousands of miles an hour on his way to becoming the first scientist on the moon. Floating by a window, he gazes back toward Earth, becoming the first human in history to see the entirety of the Southern polar ice cap.

He is awestruck - an entire hemisphere of the Earth, like a blue marble caught in a sea of black.

That marble becomes smaller and smaller as they speed toward the moon, and after two and a half days, command module pilot Ronald Evans brings them into lunar orbit. They are now just a hundred miles from their destination.

Then, on December 11th, Jack and Commander Gene Cernan climb into their Lunar Landing Module Challenger. They leave Ron behind in the command module to begin their trip to the surface of the moon. The landing goes perfectly, and after completing all their preparation and safety checks, Jack suits up and gets ready to go to work.

Gene Cernan opens the door first, and the air rushes out of the Lunar Module. Through this small hatch, all they can see is a bleak landscape of gray and black.

Jack’s heart rate quickens - he's only moments away from becoming just the 12th person ever to set foot on the moon, but Gene is the mission captain, so he has the honor of being the first on the surface.

GENE CERNAN: "I’m on the footpad. And Houston, as I step off at the surface at Taurus–Littrow, we'd like to dedicate the first steps of Apollo 17 to all those who made it possible."

For everyone involved, this is a bittersweet moment. While it marks the sixth successful moon landing of the Apollo program, it also means that humanity’s greatest adventure is drawing to a close.

Jack soon joins Gene on the surface and he experiences a brief moment of wonder as his eyes search the vast empty space. The ashen landscape around him stretches far away toward mountains in the distance. And beyond them, floating in the sky, he can see home.

The sight catches Jack short for a moment, then, he shakes it off. Because he knows they have just a few days on the surface of the moon and a lot to do. He and Gene get straight to work.

Their first moonwalk is seven hours long. Mostly, it’s the hard labor of preparing their experiments for later in the mission and readying the Lunar Roving Vehicle, or “moon buggy”, for action.

By the time they’re finished, Jack and Gene are exhausted and return to Challenger for some well-earned rest. Because day two promises much more.

The astronauts wake the next morning to the strains of Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries crackling over the radio. It’s the anthem of Jack’s alma mater CalTech - mission control’s way of inspiring him ahead of another challenging moonwalk.

But Jack doesn’t need any extra pumping up - this is the most exciting day of his career in geology. He and Gene set out in the lunar rover and drive almost five miles from the lander. This is the absolute limit of their reach - any further and they would be unable to return to safety on foot before running out of oxygen. But whatever the danger, the spectacular site that awaits them is worth the risk. As they explore and collect samples, they bounce over the surface, so excited they can’t help breaking into song.

JACK AND GENE: “I was strolling on the moon one day, in the merry, merry month of December…no, May! When much to my surprise, a pair of bonny eyes… Boy, is this a neat way to travel.”

But once the singing has stopped, Jack gets to experience the joy that only geology can provide him.

Stepping off the rover at another crater, Jack has gone only a few steps before he spots something that looks out of place, something no other crew has seen on the moon before: orange soil.

It’s the discovery of a lifetime for a geologist. These glassy orange beads of soil are a major indicator of volcanic activity. He and Gene work quickly to collect a wide variety of samples and when they finally return to Challenger, they are carrying over 70 pounds of rocks and have been on the move for 7 hours and 37 minutes. Every record for moon exploration has already been shattered by Apollo 17. But Jack and Gene will still have one day left, and one last chance to uncover more of the moon’s secrets before bidding farewell to Earth’s nearest neighbor for the final time.

Act Three: The Last Moonwalk

It’s 5:25 PM, on December 13th, 1972, two days after Apollo 17 landed on the moon.

Astronauts Harrison “Jack” Schmitt and Gene Cernan hold tight as their moon buggy accelerates across the lunar surface, kicking up dust.

The men are glad to be sitting down for a change. The relentless pace is catching up with them both, but Jack knows there’s still little time to rest. It will be years, perhaps decades before another geologist has the opportunity to explore the lunar surface. So today, more than ever, he must make every minute count.

As they ride across the lunar surface, Jack requests stops whenever he sees something interesting, unusual, or out of place. To Gene, this is a largely unremarkable and uniform gray landscape, but to Jack, it's a collage of fascinating different rock types.

They gather as many samples as they can, determined to leave with their lunar module Challenger loaded to capacity. And by the end of the day, Jack and Gene have spent 22 hours on the lunar surface in total - longer than any astronauts before them. Still, Jack is sad to leave.

As he begins readying Challenger for its ascent to the orbiting command module, Gene delivers a speech to mark the end of the Apollo program:

GENE CERNAN: “We leave as we came and, God willing as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.”

With that, Gene climbs back inside the lunar module. And after a few hours’ rest, Challenger then blasts off from the moon. Jack and Gene are reunited with Ronald Evans in the command module, which has been orbiting the moon the entire time that Jack and Gene have been on the surface.

Carefully stowing their many samples of moon rock, Jack, Gene, and Ron then head home.

After the record-breaking flight of Apollo 17, Jack will leave NASA and return to more earthbound geology. But the samples he identified and collected during his one trip into space will go on to help change science’s understanding of the moon, its history, and formation. And as of late 2022, scientists will still be unsealing and examining the finds from Apollo 17, learning yet more from the only geologist ever to set foot on another world: astronaut Jack Schmitt, who began the final moonwalk in history to date on December 13th, 1972.   

Outro

Next on History Daily. December 16th, 1905. Teams from Wales and the as of yet undefeated New Zealand clash in Rugby Union’s “match of the century”.

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Mollie Baack.

Music by Thrumm. 

This episode is written and researched by Rob Cromwell.

Edited by William Simpson.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.