Apollo 17 recovery helicopters. Shipboard footage of rescue helicopters in flight over the southern Pacific Ocean on 19 December 1972, returning to the recovery ship after retrieving the Apollo 17 astronauts from their Command Module. The three NASA astronauts on board (Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt) were returning from their lunar mission, where Cernan and Schmitt had been the last humans to walk on the Moon in what was the final Apollo mission. Splashdown occurred at 19:24 UTC. The astronauts were on board the recovery ship USS Ticonderoga 52 minutes later, with the end of this clip showing a gangway and red carpet prepared for them. |