February 5th

On this day - February 5th 1971 - The Apollo 14 mission landed on the moon 

Commander Alan Shepard, commander Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and  Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell launched on their nine-day mission on January 31, 1971. When they landed on the moon it was the third moon landing. The Apollo mission series placed man on the moon six times and Apollo 17 is the last time there have been people on the Moon. Shepard and Mitchell made their decent in the original target for Apollo 13 who aborted its mission. The lessons learned by Apollo 13 caused Apollo 14 to be changed to not repeat the accident.  During their mission they collected 42.80 Kg of Moon rocks. Shepard even made time for hitting two golf balls with a makeshift club. Mitchell and Shepard spent 33.5 hours on the Moon. Commander Roosa never sat foot on the Moon, he stayed behind doing experiments and took photos.  When the mission returned to Earth they landed in the Pacific Ocean on February 9th.

Alan Shepard next to the American Flagg