Apollo 17 the Apollo 17 mission, courtesy of NASA and Captain Eugene Cernan. The song "Tomorrow" by Public Service Broadcasting also includes audio of Commander Eugene A. Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt from the mission. Apollo 17 Apollo 17 was the final mission of NASA's Apollo program. Launched at 12:33 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST) on December 7, 1972, with a crew made up of Commander Eugene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans, and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt, it was the last use of Apollo hardware for its original purpose; after Apollo 17, extra Apollo spacecraft were used in
Apollo 17 community pressured NASA to assign a geologist to an Apollo landing, as opposed to a pilot trained in geology. In light of this pressure, Harrison Schmitt, a professional geologist, was assigned the Lunar Module Pilot position on Apollo 17. Scientist-astronaut Curt Michel believed that it was his own decision to resign, after it became clear that he would not be given a flight assignment, that mobilized this action. Subsequent to the decision to assign Schmitt to Apollo 17, there remained the question of which crew (the full backup crew of Apollo 15, Dick Gordon, Vance Brand, and Schmitt, or the