Apollo 16
April 27, 1972
Apollo 16 splashed down today. Ten men have now walked on the Moon. Armstrong. Aldrin. Conrad. Bean. Shepard. Mitchell. Scott. Irwin. Young. Duke. I keep the list. One more mission. Apollo 17 will be the last. I don't want to think about that yet. Ten men. On the Moon.
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Apollo 15
August 7, 1971
Apollo 15 splashed down today. Nearly eighteen hours of moonwalk time. Three rover traverses. The Genesis Rock. The Feather and Hammer experiment. Al Worden's deep-space EVA. This mission changed the character of Apollo — from "can we do it" to "what can we learn." I am deeply satisfied.
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Apollo 14
February 9, 1971
Apollo 14 splashed down today. Eight men have now walked on the Moon. After Apollo 13, I needed this. After the near-disaster that shouldn't have been, the mission that recovered and continued, this feels like proof that the program is intact. Eight men. I keep counting them.
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Apollo 13
April 17, 1970
Apollo 13 splashed down in the Pacific today. Three parachutes. Three men alive. Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, and Fred Haise are home. When the parachutes deployed and the capsule hit the water, Betty cried. I wasn't far behind. Six days of this. They made it.
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Apollo 12
November 24, 1969
Apollo 12 splashed down safely yesterday. Pete Conrad and Alan Bean walked the Moon twice, visited Surveyor 3, and brought home 75 pounds of samples. Dick Gordon flew solo in orbit. Six men have now walked on the Moon. I keep saying this to myself: six men have walked on…
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Apollo 11
July 25, 1969
Apollo 11 splashed down safely on Thursday. Armstrong, Aldrin, and Collins are home. But last night I walked outside and looked up at the Moon, and it was different. It looked different. Not because anything had changed about the Moon. Because something had changed about me. About us. It's not…
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December 27, 1968
The trans-earth injection burn fired correctly and Apollo 8 splashed down safely in the Pacific this morning. They made it.
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October 22, 1968
Apollo 7 splashed down safely today after eleven days in orbit. The mission was successful. Schirra had a terrible head cold the whole time.
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Apollo 7
October 22, 1968
Eleven days in orbit. All systems tested. Three men home safe. Schirra had a head cold the whole time, which made him even more cantankerous than usual with Mission Control. But more importantly: they broadcast live television from space for the first time. The picture was shaky. The men were…
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