Apollo 16 launched 1972

Apollo 16 crew (L-R): Ken Mattingly, John Young, Charles Duke

Mission patch

Apollo 16, launched April 16, 1972, was the fifth mission to land on the moon and the tenth manned mission in NASA's Apollo program.  Its crew consisted of Commander John Young, Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly, and Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke.

On Day 5 of the mission, Young and Duke undocked from the Command Module Casper and prepared the Lunar Lander Orion for landing.  They touched down in the lunar highlands, the area of the moon with brighter surfaces.

Young and Duke (the youngest person to walk on the moon) spent 71 hours on the lunar surface, which included three EVAs totalling just over 20 hours.  They drove almost 17 miles in the Lunar Roving Vehicle.

Ken Mattingly performed a one-hour EVA to retrieve several film cassettes from the exterior of the Service Module.

On April 23, the lunar module blasted off and rendezvoused with the Command Module.  They splashed down April 27 in the South Pacific Ocean.