Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 17 mission — the last one that put humans on the moon. NPR takes a look at the mission and what it means for future travel to our lunar companion.

Apollo 17 was the first Apollo mission to include a scientist as part of the crew. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

When Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon 55 years ago, he also collected lunar rocks and soil along the way to ...

Those were the last words spoken on the moon by astronaut Gene Cernan, during the Apollo 17 mission, on Dec. 14, 1972. No one has set foot on the moon since. As we reach the 50th anniversary of ...

Cernan and Harrison Schmitt, called home from Apollo 17’s smelly, dust-strewn lunar module to croon “Good morning to you” down to Earth. Mission Control responded with a blast of “Also ...

(Nearly the entire Apollo 17 mission can be re-experienced in surprising detail through a multimedia project: Apollo 17 in Real-Time.) But it was Eugene Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 mission ...

But Cernan packed his for the return trip. Another thing the astronauts brought home, and one of the most important legacies of the Apollo 17 mission, was a photograph of the entire round globe of ...

This weekend 50 years ago, NASA launched Apollo 17 in what was its sixth and final Apollo mission to land on the Moon. The crew was made up of three astronauts: Commander Gene Cernan, Lunar Module ...

Marusiak noted that every Apollo mission carried instruments for detecting moonquakes. But the Apollo 17 mission, launched in 1972, was noteworthy because it left behind an array of seismometers ...

LELAND, N.C. (WECT) - Wednesday marks 50 years since the last time astronauts blasted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and 50 years since a Leland man played a role in the historic Apollo ...

GREENFIELDBOYCE: A photograph of the Earth, the entire round globe looking like a marble, is one of the most important legacies of the Apollo 17 mission. TEASEL MUIR-HARMONY: That image was taken ...