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Lot 422
[Apollo 17] CSM AMERICA FLYING LOW OVER THE TAURUS-LITTROW LANDING SITE: seen from the LM Challenger window before landing (NASA's own copy, used and annotated, for the preparation of its final Apollo Science report) Eugene Cernan, 7-19 December 1972
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €281.60 inc. premium
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[Apollo 17] CSM AMERICA FLYING LOW OVER THE TAURUS-LITTROW LANDING SITE: seen from the LM Challenger window before landing (NASA's own copy, used and annotated, for the preparation of its final Apollo Science report)
Eugene Cernan, 7-19 December 1972
Printed 1972.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS17-147-22464].
With original editorial labels in the white margins on the recto for publication in NASA's Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report (NASA SP-330), with "A Kodak Paper" watermark and traces of previous mounting on the reverse, numbered "NASA AS17-147-22464" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas), together with an original NASA sheet indicating directives and notes (figure 4-13) for publication in the report.
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
Gene Cernan captured this wide-angle photograph using the 60mm lens of the EVA Hasselblad camera from the Lunar Module Challenger during Apollo 17's 12th orbit—just before final descent to the lunar surface. Taken from a low altitude of only ten nautical miles, this image provides a breathtaking perspective of the Valley of Taurus-Littrow, nestled within the towering massifs that frame the plains of the Sea of Serenity in the background. In the centre of the image, the Command Module America, piloted solo by Ron Evans, appears in the distance, tracing its orbit above the Moon.
From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:
110:59:42 Cernan: Gordo, we got the landing site. We're coming right over the front of it. Stand by a minute. You can see the Slide. I think you can see the Great Cross.
110:59:54 Fullerton (Mission Control): Roger.
110:59:57 Cernan: We'll get a picture of America coming right across it.
"The valley of Taurus-Littrow is confined by one of the most majestic panoramas within the experience of mankind. The roll of dark hills across the valley floor blends with bright slopes that sweep evenly upward to the rocky tops of the massifs. The Taurus-Littrow Valley does not have the jagged youthful majesty of our Rockies. Rather, it has the subdued and ancient majesty of a valley whose origins appear as one with the Sun. Here Gene and I, who have already transferred to Challenger, view our destination from an altitude of ten miles. On a course that takes it a few thousand feet below us, America continues in lunar orbit; it appears insignificant against a ridge of the South Massif."
—Harrison Schmitt (National Geographic, September 1973, p. 292)
Printed 1972.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS17-147-22464].
With original editorial labels in the white margins on the recto for publication in NASA's Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report (NASA SP-330), with "A Kodak Paper" watermark and traces of previous mounting on the reverse, numbered "NASA AS17-147-22464" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas), together with an original NASA sheet indicating directives and notes (figure 4-13) for publication in the report.
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
Gene Cernan captured this wide-angle photograph using the 60mm lens of the EVA Hasselblad camera from the Lunar Module Challenger during Apollo 17's 12th orbit—just before final descent to the lunar surface. Taken from a low altitude of only ten nautical miles, this image provides a breathtaking perspective of the Valley of Taurus-Littrow, nestled within the towering massifs that frame the plains of the Sea of Serenity in the background. In the centre of the image, the Command Module America, piloted solo by Ron Evans, appears in the distance, tracing its orbit above the Moon.
From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:
110:59:42 Cernan: Gordo, we got the landing site. We're coming right over the front of it. Stand by a minute. You can see the Slide. I think you can see the Great Cross.
110:59:54 Fullerton (Mission Control): Roger.
110:59:57 Cernan: We'll get a picture of America coming right across it.
"The valley of Taurus-Littrow is confined by one of the most majestic panoramas within the experience of mankind. The roll of dark hills across the valley floor blends with bright slopes that sweep evenly upward to the rocky tops of the massifs. The Taurus-Littrow Valley does not have the jagged youthful majesty of our Rockies. Rather, it has the subdued and ancient majesty of a valley whose origins appear as one with the Sun. Here Gene and I, who have already transferred to Challenger, view our destination from an altitude of ten miles. On a course that takes it a few thousand feet below us, America continues in lunar orbit; it appears insignificant against a ridge of the South Massif."
—Harrison Schmitt (National Geographic, September 1973, p. 292)
Footnotes
[Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report caption] FIGURE 4-13. -The CSM, near the centre of the photograph, is framed against the flat valley floor at the Taurus-Littrow landing site in this dramatic west-looking view from the LM shortly after separation on revolution 12. South Massif is the large mountain just beyond the CSM.
The light-coloured material that extends north (to the right) onto the valley floor from South Massif is the Rock Slide, and, opposite the Rock Slide, the mountain on the north side of the landing site is North Massif. The low hill nearly centred in the valley beyond the Rock Slide is Family Mountain. The crests of South Massif and North Massif are 2500 and 2100 m, respectively, above the landing site. To the west, colour differences in the surface of southern Mare Serenitatis are evident even in this highly oblique photograph (AS17-147-22464).
Literature
Apollo 17 Preliminary Science Report (NASA SP-330), figure 4-13
National Geographic, December 1973, pp. 292-293
Watch more
CLICK HERE : APOLLO 17 LUNAR MISSION 1972 " ON THE SHOULDERS OF GIANTS " NASA DOCUMENTARY 17694