Apollo 16 Facts Everyone Should Know
Apollo 16 rocked and here’s why.

The impacts of NASA’s historic Apollo 16 mission to the moon can still be seen today.
The NASA Apollo Program helped to progress technology as well as human imaginations. NASA’s Apollo 16 mission did more than just prove humans could walk on the moon.
Enjoy these 16 facts everyone should know about the Apollo 16 mission to the moon.
Check out NASA’s full Apollo 16 mission report here.

Fact #16 — Apollo 16 lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on April 16, 1972.
According to NASA — “Two significant command and service module problems — one en route to the moon and one in lunar orbit — contributed to a delay in landing and a subsequent early termination of the mission by one day. An erroneous signal indicating guidance system gimbal lock during translunar coast was neutralized by real time programming change instructing the spacecraft computer to ignore input. .” — read more here.

Fact #15 — The mission was the second to last Apollo Program mission to land on the Moon.
According to Wikipedia — “This was the first launch delay in the Apollo program due to a technical problem.
During the delay, the space suits, a spacecraft separation mechanism and batteries in the Lunar Module (LM) were modified and tested.[28] There were concerns that the explosive mechanism designed to separate the docking ring from the Command Module (CM) would not create enough pressure to completely sever the ring.” — read more here.

Fact #14 — It was NASA’s 10th manned mission in the Apollo Space Program.
According to NASA — “Apollo 16 Astronauts John Young, partially visible at left, and Charles Duke, foreground, prepare to enter the Saturn V spacecraft from the White Room high atop Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center with the assistance of Guenter Wendt in the red cap. Thomas K. Mattingly II waited for his crewmates to climb aboard the spacecraft before entering.” — read more here.

Fact #13 —The launch of Apollo 16 was delayed one month from March 17 to April 16.
According to NASA — “Three primary objectives were (1) to inspect, survey, and sample materials and surface features at a selected landing site in the Descartes region; (2) emplace and activate surface experiments; and (3) conduct in-flight experiments and photographic tasks from lunar orbit. Additional objectives included performance of experiments requiring zero gravity and engineering evaluation of spacecraft and equipment.” — read more here.

Fact #12 — Apollo 16 landed in the lunar highlands.
According to the Lunar and Planetary Society — “The Apollo 16 spacecraft was modified to essentially the same configuration as Apollo 15 to carry out a greater range of lunar orbital science activities and to increase the lunar surface stay and return a larger scientific payload. Many minor changes were made because of problems that occurred during the Apollo 15 mission. The mass spectrometer and gamma ray spectrometer booms in the Scientific Instruments Module (SIM) on the service module were modified to improve extension and retraction. Some minor changes were also made to the lunar roving vehicle (LRV) on this mission.” — read more.

Fact #11 — The Crew included John W. Young, Commander Charles M. Duke Jr., Lunar Module Pilot Thomas K. Mattingly II, Command Module Pilot.
According to Wikipedia— “Mattingly had originally been assigned to the prime crew of Apollo 13, but was exposed to the measles through Duke, at that time on the back-up crew for Apollo 13, who had caught it from one of his children. He never contracted the illness, but was nevertheless removed from the crew and replaced by his backup, Jack Swigert, three days before the launch. Young, a captain in the United States Navy, had flown on three spaceflights prior to Apollo 16: Gemini 3, Gemini 10 and Apollo 10, which orbited the Moon.[8] One of 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966, Duke had never flown in space before Apollo 16. He served on the support crew of Apollo 10 and was a Capsule Communicator(CAPCOM) for Apollo 11.” — read more here.

Fact #10— Moon rock samples from the Descartes Formation and the Cayley Formation during the Apollo 16 mission disproved a hypothesis that the formations were volcanic in origin.
According to Solar Views.com — “The following is a brief discussion of the geology of the Apollo 16 site provided by Jack Schmitt during our review of the Apollo 16 summary.
I think Apollo 16 was a major scientific surprise because we don’t know how to interpret what we found. That’s always a surprise to geologists, when they can’t explain what they found. The pre-flight expectation — by some people — of finding volcanics relates back to the old issue of the Cayley formation, the light-colored plains.” — read more here.

Fact #9 — The crew spent 12 days away from Earth.
According to Wikipedia — “At the beginning of day three, the spacecraft was about 157,000 nautical miles (291,000 km) away from the Earth.
The velocity of the craft steadily decreased, as it had not yet reached the lunar sphere of gravitational influence. The early part of day three was largely housekeeping, spacecraft maintenance and exchanging status reports with Mission Control in Houston. The crew performed the Apollo light flash experiment, or ALFMED, to investigate “light flashes” that were seen by the astronauts when the spacecraft was dark, regardless of whether or not their eyes were open, on Apollo lunar flights.” — read more here.

Fact #8 — The mission spent 20+ hours exploring the lunar surface.
According to Solar Views.com — “The third EVA had to be cut a bit short because of the late landing.
On this traverse, Young and Duke drove to North Ray Crater, a kilometer-sized feature that had been dug at least a couple of hundred meters into the lower slopes of Smoky Mountain. Although there had been no very high resolution photographs available before the mission, there were hints of big boulders on the rim of North Ray and, indeed, during the landing, Duke had snuck a peek up north and had assured himself that there were, indeed, some very promising rocks at the rim of the crater.” — read more here.

Fact #7 — Astronaut Mattingly orbited the moon while of Young and Duke explored the lunar surface.
According to NASA — “The results verified Apollo 15 data and provided information on lunar terrain not previously covered.
Lunar liftoff came on time at 8:26 p.m. EST April 23, in view of the rover television camera. After normal rendezvous and docking, and transfer of crew samples and equipment, the lunar module was jettisoned. Attitude control was lost, eliminating the usual deorbit maneuver and planned impact.” — read more here.

Fact #6 — Apollo 16 mission drove 16.6 miles on the surface of the Moon in the Lunar Roving Vehicle.
According to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum — “The second and third EVA’s were devoted primarily to geological exploration and sample gathering in selected areas in the vicinity of the landing site. On the second EVA, the astronauts traveled south-southeast to a sampling area near Cinco Crater on Stone Mountain. The crew also made stops near Stubby and Wreck Craters, The duration of the second EVA was approximately 7 hours 23 minutes and a distance of 11.1 kilometers traveled.” — read more here.

Fact #5 — The mission experienced two command and service module problems during flight.
According to NASA — “one en route to the moon and one in lunar orbit — contributed to a delay in landing and a subsequent early termination of the mission by one day.
An erroneous signal indicating guidance system gimbal lock during translunar coast was neutralized by real time programming change instructing the spacecraft computer to ignore input. After undocking of Casper and Orion, circularization burn of the CSM was delayed when backup circuit caused yaw oscillations of service propulsion system. Orion landing was held until engineers determined oscillations would not seriously affect CSM steering.” — read more here.

Fact #4 — Apollo 16 was the second expedition to bring a Lunar Roving Vehicle.
According to Wikipedia — “Shortly after waking up on the morning of flight day six three and a half minutes early, they discussed with Mission Control in Houston the day’s timeline of events. The second lunar excursion’s primary objective was to visit Stone Mountain to climb up the slope of about 20 degrees to reach a cluster of five craters known as “Cinco Craters.” After preparations for the day’s moonwalk were completed, the astronauts climbed out of the Lunar Module.” — read more here.

Fact #3 — The crew gathered 210 pounds of samples from the lunar surface.
According to NASA — “Lunar module, or LM, carrying John Young and Charles Duke touched down at Descartes about 276 meters northwest of planned point (8 degrees 59' 29”S, 15 degrees 30' 52"E) at about 9:24 p.m. EST April 20, about five hours, 43 minutes late. During 71 hours, two minutes surface stay, astronauts explored region on three EVAs totaling 20 hours, 14 minutes. First EVA included Lunar Roving Vehicle setup and ALSEP deployment.” — read more here.

Fact #2— Astronaut Charles Duke’s left a plastic-encased photo of his family on the on lunar surface.
According to Business Insider — “On the back of the photo Duke wrote: “This is the family of astronaut Charlie Duke from planet Earth who landed on the moon on April 20, 1972.”
Here’s a clearer copy of the photo Duke gave us. On the far left is his oldest son, Charles Duke III, who had just turned seven. In the front in red is his youngest son, Thomas Duke, who was five. Duke and his wife, Dorothy Meade Claiborne, are in the background” — read more here.

Fact #1 — Apollo 16 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on April 27, 1972.
According to NASA — “After normal rendezvous and docking, and transfer of crew samples and equipment, the lunar module was jettisoned.
Attitude control was lost, eliminating the usual deorbit maneuver and planned impact. Because of problems noted earlier, planners elected to return the mission one day early. During transearth coast, Mattingly took an 83-minute spacewalk to retrieve film cassettes from the SIM bay Normal entry and landing resulted in splashdown at 0 degrees 42' 0” S, 156 degrees 12' 49" W, just before 3 p.m. EST April 27. Total mission time was 265 hours, 51 minutes, five seconds.” — read more here.
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“The important achievement of Apollo was demonstrating that humanity is not forever chained to this planet and our visions go rather further than that and our opportunities are unlimited.” — Neil Armstrong
