By the time Apollo 17 launched in December 1972, the world had fallen out of love with the Moon. Apollo missions 18 through to 20 had already been cancelled due to waning public interest and constraints on US government budgets, but many questioned why Apollo 17 was still happening when every mission looked identical.
To the science community, though, each landing provided valuable new insights. Knowing this would be the last mission, NASA was determined that Apollo 17 would have something no landing mission had had before: a trained geologist in the form of Howard Jack’ Schmitt as lunar module pilot. Mission commander Gene Cernan wasn’t thrilled with the decision as Schmitt pushed out Joe Engle, whom both Cernan and Apollo 17 command module pilot Ronald Evans had served with on the Apollo 14 backup crew.
