Apollo 17 Flight Journal

By Eric Hartwell

This is NOT the official Apollo 17 Flight Journal (yet). This site documents my research on the flight of Apollo 17. Once I'm satisfied the material here is documented and reasonably complete, I'll submit it to NASA for review, and, I hope, as my contribution for when they create the real Apollo 17 Flight Journal. Please use the Discussion link at the bottom of each page to add your comments or corrections.

[edit] Contents

Apollo 17 was the eleventh manned space mission in the NASA Apollo program and was the sixth and last mission to date to land on the Moon. It was the first night launch, and the final mission, of the Apollo program. The crew were Eugene Cernan [Commander], Ron Evans [Command Module Pilot] and Jack (Harrison) Schmitt [Lunar Module Pilot].

About this Project

Travelling from the Earth to the Moon
Day 1: Launch and ascent to Earth orbit First Launch Attempt Cutoff and Hold Countdown S-IC First Stage S-II Second Stage S-IVB Third Stage
Day 1: Earth orbit and translunar insertion Housekeeping First Sunrise Insertion and Systems Checklist Block Data Updates First Darkside Pass Preparation for TLI Burn Translunar Injection
Day 1: Transposition, docking and extraction Separation Transposition and Docking Verify Docking LM Ejection S-IVB Evasive Burn Earth Observation Winding Down Rest Period
Preparation for flight

[edit] What's new: Ascent, Earth orbit, and translunar injection ground track

This is a live map; click on + to zoom in, - to zoom out.

The map below is centered on the launch pad. You can zoom in all the way, past the limit of the Apollo data's resolution (to see the effects of the pitch and roll programs) and to see pad 39A in its Space Shuttle configuration.

[edit] About this Project

Whoever contacted Jack in 2000, it wasn't me - but I've picked up the challenge.

A proper reference needs sources identified, interpretations explained, and a revision history with audit trail. In this case, it also needs to be web-friendly, and it helps if it's really convenient and easy to edit. After I compiled the raw data, I realized I already have a web application that does all that - MediaWiki, the underlying engine for Wikipedia and Wikibooks. The result is what you see here (more ...).

[edit] Status

As of April 11, 2007, this project covers the period from launch to the end of day one.

I've combined the OCR'd text in the transcript PDFs and added some information from the Technical Crew Debriefing and Jack Schmitt's JSC oral history interview. I still don't have the original audio recordings, so the transcripts should not be considered definitive. I've also included some articles from the existing Apollo Flight Journals and started adding my own. I've also been collecting and organizing NASA publicity photos (see launch preparation and flight), and adding photos to the journal pages. Finally, I've upgraded this web site to make a solid working platform.

[edit] Thanks

I owe a huge debt to David Woods and Frank O'Brien for the Apollo Flight Journal and Eric Jones for the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. Additional Apollo Journal content, by Jones, Woods, O'Brien, Ken Glover, Joseph O'Dea, Kipp Teague, Lennie Waugh and Robin Wheeler, is reproduced by permission.