Apollo 14 Returns: Moon Landing Success Confirmed

Apollo 14 splashed down in the South Pacific on February 9, 1971, capping the third successful crewed lunar landing and proving that NASA could recover from near-catastrophe. Less than a year earlier, Apollo 13 had nearly killed its crew when an oxygen tank exploded en route to the Moon. The question hanging over the program was whether Apollo could continue. The answer was Alan Shepard. He'd been the first American in space in 1961, a fifteen-minute suborbital flight aboard Freedom 7. Then Meniere's disease, an inner ear condition that causes vertigo, grounded him for nearly a decade. A risky surgical procedure in 1969 restored his balance, and NASA gave him command of Apollo 14. He was 47, the oldest astronaut to walk on the Moon. The mission targeted the Fra Mauro highlands, the same site Apollo 13 was supposed to have explored. The Lunar Module Antares had landing radar problems during descent, and Shepard and Edgar Mitchell had to troubleshoot a software fix in real time. They landed successfully on February 5, 1971. On the surface, Shepard and Mitchell conducted two EVAs totaling over nine hours, collecting 94.35 pounds of lunar samples and deploying a suite of scientific instruments including a seismometer and a laser ranging retroreflector. The geology was significant: Fra Mauro was believed to contain ejecta from the massive Imbrium impact event, material that could reveal the Moon's deep interior history. Shepard famously smuggled a makeshift six-iron golf club head onto the mission, attached it to a sample collection tool, and hit two golf balls on the lunar surface. He shanked the first. The second, he claimed, went "miles and miles." In the Moon's one-sixth gravity, it probably traveled 200 to 400 yards. Stuart Roosa orbited overhead in the Command Module Kitty Hawk, conducting experiments and photographing potential future landing sites. The crew splashed down southeast of American Samoa and was recovered by the USS New Orleans. The mission restored confidence in the Apollo program after the trauma of Apollo 13.