Apollo 16 the fifth mission to land people on the moon to earth. Apollo launched at 12:54 EST on April 16,1972. The mission had gotten early complications, which were command and service module problems. The apollo spacecraft had a lot to do with the mission as well, it was built almost the same as Apollo 15 but just made to carry out greater ranges. At the beginning of day three, the spacecraft was about 157,000 nautical miles (291,000 km) away from the Earth. Since they had these complications, Apollo 16 was terminated. The crew consisted of John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly II, and Charles M. Duke Jr. They were supposed to land in a highland region that wasn’t explored yet on the moon. The main objectives of the mission were to inspect, survey, and collect materials, and to conduct …show more content…
Apollo 16's landing spot in the highlands was chosen to make the astronauts get older lunar material. By the time the control called to wake-up the crew for flight day two, the spacecraft was about 181,000 km away from the Earth. The ship was not going to arrive in the lunar orbit until day four of the launch. At the end of day two, Apollo 16 was about 260,000 km away from Earth. At 74 hours and 17 minutes, Apollo 16 went behind the Moon, losing contact with Houston. Apollo 16 was the second mission to use the Lunar Roving Vehicle (“ , was a four-wheeled manually controlled, electrically powered vehicle that carried the crew and their equipment over the lunar surface.”) When the team landed on day five, they had to power down some systems to conserve a lot of battery. The crew was 310,000 km away from Earth. Then after a full day of travel, they were about 143,000 km away from Earth now. After for a bit more, the next and final wake up call has arrived and by then they’re 83,000 km away from Earth. But, in ten minutes they’ll finally enter Earth’s atmosphere, but it’s still going to take a full 3 hours for them to splash down in the pacific