Apollo 14

Apollo 14
Edgar D. Mitchell / NASA · Public domain · source
Name	Apollo 14
Mission type	Crewed lunar landing
Operator	NASA
Mission duration	9 days, 1 minute, 58 seconds
Spacecraft	CSM Kitty Hawk / LM Antares
Manufacturer	North American Rockwell / Grumman
Launch mass	102,084 pounds (46,305 kg)
Launch date	January 31, 1971, 21:03:02 UTC
Launch rocket	Saturn V SA-509
Launch site	Kennedy Space Center LC-39A
Landing date	February 9, 1971, 21:05:00 UTC
Landing site	South Pacific Ocean
Recovery by	USS ''New Orleans''
Crew members	Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, Edgar Mitchell
Crew photo caption	Left to right: Roosa, Shepard, Mitchell
Programme	Apollo program
Previous mission	Apollo 13
Next mission	Apollo 15

Apollo 14 was the eighth crewed mission in the Apollo program and the third to land on the Moon. Launched in early 1971, its primary objectives were to explore the Fra Mauro formation, a region of scientific interest originally targeted by the aborted Apollo 13 mission. The successful flight restored confidence in the NASA lunar exploration effort and yielded significant geological findings.

Mission overview

The mission was commanded by Alan Shepard, the first American in space, with Stuart Roosa piloting the Command and Service Module and Edgar Mitchell piloting the Lunar Module. Following the near-disaster of Apollo 13, NASA implemented numerous safety modifications to the Saturn V rocket and spacecraft systems. The flight plan focused on detailed geological fieldwork at the hilly Fra Mauro formation, which was thought to contain material ejected from the massive Imbrium Basin impact. Key operational goals included deploying the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package and conducting extensive surface traverses using a modular equipment transporter.

Crew

The commander was Alan Shepard, who had flown on Freedom 7 a decade earlier. Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa was a United States Air Force test pilot on his first spaceflight, responsible for orbital operations and photography. Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell, a United States Navy aviator and aeronautical engineer, was also a first-time flyer. The backup crew consisted of Eugene Cernan, who would later command Apollo 17, Ronald Evans, and Joe Engle. The support team included Bruce McCandless II and William Pogue, both future Skylab astronauts, with Gordon Fullerton serving as a Cape Canaveral capsule communicator.

Mission highlights

After a launch delay due to weather, the Saturn V performed flawlessly. A serious docking problem between the CSM Kitty Hawk and the LM Antares was resolved through a risky manual procedure. During the descent to the lunar surface, a faulty abort switch required a software workaround to prevent an automatic abort command. Shepard and Mitchell landed successfully in the Fra Mauro highlands. They conducted two moonwalks, using a two-wheeled cart called the Modular Equipment Transporter to carry tools and samples. Highlights included Shepard famously hitting two golf balls with a makeshift club and the arduous climb up the slope of Cone crater to reach its rim. Meanwhile, Roosa conducted photographic and spectroscopic surveys from lunar orbit.

Scientific results

The crew collected approximately 94 pounds (43 kg) of lunar rocks and soil, including the famous "Big Bertha" sample, later identified as containing a fragment of Earth's ancient crust. The deployed Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package included a passive seismic experiment to detect moonquakes, a charged particle lunar environment experiment, and a laser ranging retroreflector. Data from these instruments helped refine understanding of the Moon's internal structure and the solar wind. Geologists from the United States Geological Survey determined the samples were primarily breccia formed by the Imbrium Basin impact, providing crucial evidence for the Late Heavy Bombardment theory in the early Solar System.

Legacy and spacecraft location

Apollo 14 successfully completed the science objectives missed by Apollo 13 and demonstrated the feasibility of complex geological exploration, paving the way for the more advanced J-missions like Apollo 15. The mission reaffirmed NASA's technical recovery and operational flexibility. The Command Module Kitty Hawk is on permanent display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida. The Lunar Module ascent stage was intentionally impacted on the Moon for seismic studies, while the descent stage remains at the Fra Mauro landing site. Stuart Roosa carried hundreds of tree seeds into orbit, which were later germinated as the celebrated "Moon trees" planted across the United States.