Missione Apollo 17 - Parla Eugene Cernan - Mi Ricordo Tutto

Video from the channel Frank Dav about Apollo 17, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 6:15. Language: English. Video type: News.

Eugene Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 mission, recalls his journey to the Moon in this interview. He says the mission lifted off at night, the first time humans had launched a rocket at that hour, and describes the glare that lit up the surroundings and was reflected in the atmosphere. It was his third flight, but the first as commander, and he explains the weight of knowing that success or failure depended largely on him. Stepping onto the lunar surface, he felt he was proving to himself that he was ready.

Cernan talks about the three days of intense work on the Moon. He describes the Earth hanging in the sky, with the blue of the oceans and the white of the snow, as the real world set against the almost science-fiction landscape he was standing on. He says he had to convince himself that it was really happening.

The astronaut says he prefers to look to the future rather than the past. He criticizes the way the United States space program has been redirected, leaving the country, in his view, without a program of its own. Even so, he trusts that international collaboration will make it possible to return to the Moon, where there is still much to learn, and later reach Mars. He argues that this task will fall to today's schoolchildren, who will see humans on Mars within their lifetime.