Apollo 17
Apollo 17's Challenger lands at Taurus-Littrow
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗Challenger came down about 240 metres from its planned target, with propellant left for an estimated 117 seconds of hovering.
19:54:58 UTC, 11 December 1972
Lunar Module Challenger, carrying commander Eugene Cernan and Lunar Module pilot Harrison Schmitt, separated from the command-and-service module America and descended toward Taurus-Littrow on 11 December 1972. It touched down at 19:54:58 UTC in the Taurus-Littrow valley, near the southeastern edge of Mare Serenitatis; NASA's mission-details page gives 19:54:57.
During the final descent Schmitt called out altitude and descent-rate information while Cernan controlled the landing. Schmitt counted Challenger down from 25 feet, then called contact.
240 metres from the mark
Challenger landed about 240 metres from its planned landing point, at approximately 20.16° north and 30.77° east.
At touchdown the lander still held about 1,225 pounds of propellant — estimated as roughly 117 seconds of hovering.
Two down, one circling
Ronald Evans remained in lunar orbit aboard America while Cernan and Schmitt began preparing for surface operations. All three astronauts reached lunar orbit; only two descended.
The first EVA began later on 11 December UTC, with Cernan the first of the pair to step onto the surface, shortly after midnight EST on 12 December. The landing established humanity's sixth successful crewed lunar landing site — Apollo 13 did not land — and opened a surface stay of approximately 75 hours.
Sources
Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources 3 audit passes
How this was checked
Researched from the web into a fact sheet, rewritten from that sheet, then audited against it by a different model. How the pipeline works →
What the sources leave uncertain
- NASA's mission-details page gives touchdown as 19:54:57 UTC, while the Apollo 17 Mission Report cited by the Lunar Surface Journal gives contact at 19:54:58 UTC. The one-second difference does not affect the date.
- Cernan's first step is dated December 12 in Eastern Standard Time but occurred during December 11 by UTC-based mission chronology.