December 11th

On this day – 11^th December 1972 – The last Apollo mission landed on the moon

Apollo 17 left earth on December 7^th and landed on the moon for a three day stay on the 11^th December 1972. This was the last of the Apollo missions and also the last manned moon expedition. It was also the longest moon stay for any of the Apollo missions. No human being have been to the moon, or to the low earth orbit, ever since. Apollo 11 was the first to land on the moon in 1969, thereafter followed Apollo 12 (1969), Apollo 14 (1971), Apollo 15 (1971) and Apollo 16 (1972). A total of 24 U.S astronauts have been to the moon, and 12 of those have walked on it.

The Apollo 17 expedition crew consisted of three members, Cernan, Evans and Schmitt, who returned safely to the earth on December 19^th. Evans conducted a 1 hour and 7 minutes spacewalk on their return trip, but the return went without any significant happenings. On December 7th, took the crew the famous "Blue Marble" picture of the earth (see below). The crew landed in the Pacific Ocean, only 6.4 km (4.0 miles) from the rescue boat, and a helicopter picked them up shortly after. And with that, the history of the US moon-missions came to its end. 

The "Blue marble" picture from the mission