Apollo 17: Gene Cernan in Lunar Roving Vehicle

Apollo 17 mission commander Eugene Cernan drives the lunar roving vehicle during the early part of the mission's first moonwalk at the Taurus-Littrow landing site. The Lunar Module is in the background.

Apollo 17 began on Dec. 7, 1972, with the first night launch in the history of America's human spaceflight program. A Saturn V rocket carrying Cernan, Schmitt, and Evans lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center lighting up the Florida skies en route to the moon. Four days later, Cernan and Schmitt touched down in the moon's Taurus-Littrow highlands.