Apollo Program · Fifth crewed lunar landing — first highlands J-mission
Apollo 16
- Launch
- 1972-04-16 17:54 UTC
- Return
- 1972-04-27 19:45 UTC
- Duration
- 11 days 01 hour 51 minutes
Mission summary
Apollo 16 was the first lunar landing in the highlands, at the Cayley and Descartes formations on the Descartes Plain. The mission's pre-flight geological hypothesis — that the highlands were volcanic — was overturned by the samples Young and Duke returned, which proved to be impact breccias. Three EVAs over 20 hours included LRV traverses to Stone Mountain and North Ray Crater. The flight nearly aborted in lunar orbit when Mattingly detected SPS-engine gimbal oscillations during a test; ground controllers cleared the engine after analysis and the landing proceeded six hours late. Young's grand-jeté hop in the lunar 1/6 g and Duke's exuberance — including bouncing off the LRV in a famously hard ride — gave the mission its visual signature.
Crew
| Astronaut | Prior missions | Subsequent missions |
|---|---|---|
|
John W. Young Commander |
Gemini 3, Gemini 10, Apollo 10 | STS-1 (first Space Shuttle flight, 1981), STS-9 (1983) |
|
Thomas K. Mattingly II Command Module Pilot |
None (first flight; bumped from Apollo 13 by rubella exposure) | STS-4 (1982), STS-51-C (1985) |
|
Charles M. Duke Jr. Lunar Module Pilot |
None (first flight; was Apollo 11 CAPCOM during the landing) | None |
Launch vehicle
Saturn V SA-511
Lunar landing
Open on the surface map →- Site
- Descartes Highlands
- Coordinates
- -8.9734° lat, 15.5011° lon
- Touchdown
- 1972-04-21 02:24 UTC
- EVAs
- 3 · total 20:14:14
Objectives
- First landing in the lunar highlands — geological investigation of the Cayley and Descartes formations.
- Second Lunar Roving Vehicle deployment.
- Deploy the fourth ALSEP package.
- Mattingly's trans-Earth coast EVA to retrieve SIM-bay film cassettes.
Milestones
| When | Event |
|---|---|
| 1972-04-16 17:54 UTC |
Launched from LC-39A.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo16.html |
| 1972-04-21 | Landing delayed by ~6 hours after Mattingly detected oscillations in the SPS engine gimbal during a pre-descent test; ground controllers cleared the SPS for use after analysis. |
| 1972-04-21 02:24 UTC | Young and Duke landed LM 'Orion' in the Descartes Highlands — first landing on terrain the program had specifically targeted as volcanic in origin (later sampling proved it was instead impact-breccia, overturning the pre-mission geological model). |
| 1972-04-21 to 1972-04-23 | Three EVAs totaling 20 hours 14 minutes; LRV traverses out to Stone Mountain and North Ray Crater. Cumulative LRV distance ~26.7 km. |
| 1972-04-25 | Mattingly conducted an 83-minute trans-Earth coast EVA to retrieve film cassettes from the SIM bay. |
| 1972-04-27 19:45 UTC | Splashed down in the Pacific; recovered by USS Ticonderoga. |
Primary sources
Last updated 2026-05-09 15:17 UTC.