After Apollo

The Apollo 17 mission returned with a record amount of Moon rock—256 pounds (116 kilograms). This material, together with earlier soil samples and scientific data from the Moon landings, was eagerly studied by scientists all over the world. By the 1970s, however, the public had become less excited about manned spaceflights. Politicians also lost interest. NASA turned its attention to more practical space travel in the form of a reusable spacecraft, the Space Shuttle. Since 1972, there have been no further Moon landings.

Leftover Apollo equipment was used in 1973 in Skylab, an orbital space sta­tion used as a science laboratory. Three crews of U. S. astronauts visited Skylab, the third crew making the longest visit of eighty-four days.

The last Apollo spacecraft flew in 1975. Astronauts Tom Stafford, Donald Slayton, and Vance Brand docked in Earth orbit with a Soviet Soyuz space­craft carrying cosmonauts Alexei Leonov and Valery Kubasov. This mission, the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, was intended to further U. S.-Soviet collaboration in space. With this project, the Apollo pro­gram came to a positive end.

The Apollo missions captured the imaginations of millions of people around the world who watched the Apollo 11 astronauts on television, from the thrilling moment of launch to their Moon walks and final splashdown.

The Apollo program was also an immense technical and industrial achievement. Thousands of workers in dozens of companies and research insti­tutes worked together to build the necessary rockets, spacecraft, and equip­ment. The program also boosted progress in microelectronics and com­puters. This important new technology would soon come to be used in further space exploration and on Earth.