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Lot 413
[Apollo 16] LM ORION REUNITING WITH CSM CASPER IN LUNAR ORBIT Ken Mattingly, 16-27 April 1972
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue Hoche€700 - €1,000
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[Apollo 16] LM ORION REUNITING WITH CSM CASPER IN LUNAR ORBIT
Ken Mattingly, 16-27 April 1972
Printed 1972.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS16-122-19534].
With three filing holes in the top margin not affecting the image, with "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA AS16-122-19534" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
A breathtaking view of one of the first manned spacecraft returning from another world.
After more than three days on the Moon's surface, the ascent stage of Lunar Module Orion, carrying John Young and Charles Duke, closes in on the Command and Service Module Casper, where Ken Mattingly awaits to reunite for their journey back to Earth.
Captured by Mattingly from Casper's 53rd orbit, this striking photograph—taken with an 80mm lens from an altitude of 110 km—shows Orion silhouetted against the Moon's Sea of Fertility (3° S, 47° E). At this moment, Orion is performing a yaw manoeuvre for inspection before docking (see mission transcript). The stresses of lunar liftoff visibly buckled parts of Orion's thermal panels, but the damage posed no risk to the crew's safe reunion with Casper.
"That machine (the LM) just flies so nice. It's just unbelievable! But once you get to ascent stage, it's really light and responsive. Boy, you fire one of those thrusters and it does exactly what you want it to."
—John Young (from the mission transcript at 203:12:21 GET after trans-Earth injection)
Printed 1972.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS16-122-19534].
With three filing holes in the top margin not affecting the image, with "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA AS16-122-19534" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
A breathtaking view of one of the first manned spacecraft returning from another world.
After more than three days on the Moon's surface, the ascent stage of Lunar Module Orion, carrying John Young and Charles Duke, closes in on the Command and Service Module Casper, where Ken Mattingly awaits to reunite for their journey back to Earth.
Captured by Mattingly from Casper's 53rd orbit, this striking photograph—taken with an 80mm lens from an altitude of 110 km—shows Orion silhouetted against the Moon's Sea of Fertility (3° S, 47° E). At this moment, Orion is performing a yaw manoeuvre for inspection before docking (see mission transcript). The stresses of lunar liftoff visibly buckled parts of Orion's thermal panels, but the damage posed no risk to the crew's safe reunion with Casper.
"That machine (the LM) just flies so nice. It's just unbelievable! But once you get to ascent stage, it's really light and responsive. Boy, you fire one of those thrusters and it does exactly what you want it to."
—John Young (from the mission transcript at 203:12:21 GET after trans-Earth injection)
Footnotes
From the mission transcript as the two spacecrafts were closing in for rendezvous (photograph taken at T+177:14:08 after launch):
177:07:40 Young (Orion): Okay. And you're getting big, Ken.
177:07:45 Duke (Orion): Sure is. Growing like a-
177:07:50 Young (Orion): Okay, we got 2000 feet now, Ken.
177:07:56 Mattingly (Casper): Okay. Man, that looks good.
177:08:02 Young (Orion): What a beautiful machine. [...]
177:09:56 Mattingly (Casper): You look a lot smaller in the daytime. At the same range.
177:10:04 Young (Orion): What a flying machine this is, Ken. Okay, 400 feet; we're going to 4.
177:10:23 Mattingly (Casper): My, you look good. Your forward firing thrusters look like little flashlights when they fire.
177:10:30 Duke (Orion): Ken, you're clean. You don't have a boom out.
177:10:34 Mattingly (Casper): Okay, well, wait until you get back around there and take a look. [...]
177:13:57 Mattingly: Okay. We're in perfect position to take pictures of the LM right now. All they've got to do is to pitch. He prefers to go to the other sequence, is that correct?
177:14:08 Hartsfield (Mission Control): Okay. If you're in a position to take pictures of the LM we wanted the LM to do a 360-degree yaw, and you're to take pictures of the - the minus-Z portion of the ascent stage, using the same camera setting that you have on the DAC (16mm camera) and the (Hasselblad) EL, except the focus on the EL should be changed to infinity. Over.
Watch more
CLICK HERE: APOLLO 16 - Inspection and Docking -