Apollo 17 recovery divers deploying. Footage of rescue divers being dropped from a helicopter to secure the Apollo 17 Command Module after splashdown in the southern Pacific Ocean on 19 December 1972. They will deploy inflatables to secure the module, and then assist the astronauts as they emerge. The three NASA astronauts (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. Divers secured the module and the astronauts were retrieved by rescue helicopter and were on board the recovery ship USS Ticonderoga 52 minutes later. |