Apollo 17 backup crew of Apollo 14) would become prime crew of the mission. NASA Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton ultimately assigned the backup crew of Apollo 14 (Cernan and Evans), along with Schmitt, to the prime crew of Apollo 17. The Apollo 15 prime crew received the backup assignment since this was to be the last lunar mission and the backup crew would not rotate to another mission. However, when the Apollo 15 postage stamp incident became public in early 1972 the crew was reprimanded by NASA and the United States Air Force (they were active duty officers). Director
Astronaut: The Last Push time progresses, the repairs fail to restore power, and the ship becomes cold. After a hallucination of his fellow astronaut jolts him awake, he makes one final effort to repair the ship which proves successful. As the ship rounds Venus, Michael dons his space suit and re-enters the damaged hibernation capsule for the first time since the accident. He looks out of the window in awe at the sight of Venus' atmosphere below him. After passing Venus, he successfully ignites the engines and is two years away from Earth. On arriving at Earth he only has to reignite the engines