2-860-657 - Heritage Space/Heritage Images

Apollo 17 Pacific Recovery Area, 1972. The Apollo 17 spacecraft, containing astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans, and Harrison H. Schmitt, glided to a safe splashdown at 2:25 pm EST on December 19, 1972, 648 kilometers (350 nautical miles) southeast of American Samoa. They were flown by recovery helicopter to the U.S.S. Ticonderoga slightly less than an hour after the completion of NASA's sixth and last manned lunar landing in the Apollo program.