MISSION MOON

HOW 50 YEARS OF SPACE EXPLORATION DEFINED HOUSTON

Our special anniversary coverage of the July 20, 1969, moon landing continues today with a look at the final Apollo missions after the historic Apollo 11.

“I think that the blush went off the rose after Apollo 11, and you would expect it would, because man had been looking up at the moon for as long as man was on Earth, wondering what it was and why it was there.” Chris Kraft, NASA’s first Mission Control flight director

There were countless “firsts” after Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon in July 1969 — it’s inevitable when a country is exploring a celestial body for the first time.

First golf ball hit on the moon, a line driver sent into the universe by Apollo 14 astronaut Alan Shepard in February 1971.

First drive on the moon, a bumpy jaunt across the lunar surface piloted by Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott six

months later.

And of course, first scientist on the moon, a feat accomplished in 1972 by Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt at a time when spacemen were primarily military test pilots.

But as is typical with everything new, the moon missions became less exciting, and the American people started to lose interest after the historic moonwalk.

“I think that the blush went off the rose after Apollo 11, and you would expect it would, because man had been looking up at the moon for as long as man was on Earth, wondering what it was and why it was there,” Chris Kraft, NASA’s first mission control flight director, told the Houston Chronicle earlier this year.

The public “lost interest” when the goal was accomplished, he said.

For those in Congress, that started well before Apollo 11 landed on the moon. Many questioned the amount of money being spent on the mission when so many other social programs needed funding.

In a May 20, 1969, article published in the Houston Chronicle, Sen. Edward Kennedy was quoted calling for a “slowdown” of the space program so that funds could go toward “more pressing programs” such as poverty, hunger and pollution. Kennedy was the brother of President John F. Kennedy, who orchestrated the moonshot initiative.

Edward Kennedy still hoped for some exploration missions to take place after the July 20, 1969, landing, and they did. But it only took federal officials six months after that historic first to start axing Apollo missions.

NASA initially planned for nine moon missions, up to Apollo 20. That number was cut down to six in 1970. Apollo 17 would be the last.

Many Apollo-era employees at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston found the move shocking. They thought the U.S. would continue to travel to the moon and eventually to Mars.

That still hasn’t happened. But what was accomplished during the six Apollo missions that did make the cut continue to help scientists worldwide understand Earth.

During the last moon mission, Apollo 17 astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt stepped foot on the moon. Cernan, who died in 2017, left the very last footprints on the moon. Before returning to Earth, he carved his daughter’s initials in the moon dust.

“We leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind,” he said. “Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17.”

Humans haven’t returned since.

NASA Astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr., Apollo 16 lunar module pilot, collects lunar samples on April 21, 1972.

NASA Apollo 15 astronauts — James B. Irwin, David R. Scott and Alfred M. Worden — are shown here in March 1971.

NASA Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan, left, and scientist Harrison Schmitt flew in the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.

NASA Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell is assisted out of the command module on Feb. 9, 1971.