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| Apollo 17 crew-signed launch cover featuring the mission insignia cachet, postmarked KSC on December 7, 1972. Signed by Gene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt, and Ron Evans. This cover was acquired from the Evans family several years ago and may have been signed before the mission. - Heritage Auctions |
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| Photo: Apollo 17 astronauts Harrison Schmitt, Ron Evans, and Gene Cernan pose in front of their Apollo spacecraft that will transport them to the Moon. |
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| Apollo 17 crew-signed launch cover featuring the mission insignia cachet, postmarked KSC on December 7, 1972. Signed by Ron Evans, Harrison Schmitt, and Gene Cernan. - Heritage Auctions |
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| Photo: Apollo 17 astronauts during a training session on December 1, 1972. |
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| Photo: Eugene Cernan converses with a boy in the crowd who witnessed the rollout of the Apollo 17 rocket to the launch pad. |
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| Apollo 17 official NASA cachet on a cover with a Kennedy Space Center machine cancellation. The cover is signed by Harrison Schmitt, Gene Cernan, and Ron Evans. |
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| Photo: Apollo 17 crew having breakfast at suppertime in preparation for the night launch. |
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| Apollo 17 Heritage Crafts cachet launch cover featuring a Kennedy Space Center machine cancellation dated December 7, 1972, signed by Gene Cernan, Ron Evans, and Harrison Schmitt. |
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| Photo: Alan Shepard and Harrison Schmitt in the suiting-up room. The sign above Harrison Schmitt states that Apollo 17, the final mission of the Apollo space series, is "Only a beginning" for space exploration. |
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| Apollo 17 launched on December 7, 1972. |
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| Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station, located near Canberra, Australia, was a NASA Earth station that played a crucial role in supporting Project Apollo. It operated from 1967 until its closure in 1981. The station, which housed a 26-meter dish now decommissioned, is best known for receiving and transmitting to the world the iconic first TV images of astronaut Neil Armstrong stepping onto the Moon on July 21, 1969. In addition to broadcasting these historic images, Honeysuckle Creek, along with the Tidbinbilla station, maintained voice and telemetry contact with the lunar and command modules. |
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| 1972 Apollo 17 moon landing cover featuring a Houston postmark dated December 11, 1972, signed by Ron Evans, Gene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt. This multicolor cover was created from a lunar chart and includes the Apollo 17 Mission logo on the left. - RegencyStamps |
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| Apollo 17 lifted-off from the Moon on December 14, 1972. The covers above are postmarked in Houston. |
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| Apollo 17 lifted-off from the Moon. The cover above is postmarked at Cape Canaveral on December 14, 1972, and signed by Gene Cernan. |
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| On December 17, 1972, during the journey back to Earth, Evans conducted a 65-minute spacewalk to retrieve film cassettes from the service module's SIM bay, while Schmitt assisted him from the command module's hatch. |
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| On December 18, 1972, the Apollo 17 crew held a televised press conference at the end of their day. Reporters submitted questions, which capcom Fullerton relayed to the crew for their responses. By the time Cernan, Evans, and Schmitt went to sleep for their final night in space, they had reduced their distance to Earth to 84,000 miles. |
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| Photo: The Apollo 17 command module splashed down in the South Pacific on December 19, 1972. A recovery helicopter hovers above the command module while the USS Ticonderoga stands by. |
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| Beck printed cachet cover B884 with a hand cancellation from the USS Ticonderoga, signed by Gene Cernan. |
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| Apollo 17 USS Ticonderoga recovery ship cover featuring a Beck rubber-stamped cachet, signed by Ron Evans, Gene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt. The hand cancellation from the USS Ticonderoga, dated December 19, 1972, was postmarked onshore. |
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| Apollo 17 Captain's cover featuring a Beck rubber-stamped cachet, hand-cancelled aboard the USS Ticonderoga on December 19, 1972. |
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| Apollo 17 Captain's covers with a USS Ticonderoga machine cancellation dated December 20, 1972, the day after the recovery. The onboard Post Office was closed on the 19th, making the 20th the first available postmark date. The bottom cover is signed by Donald Stullken, the NASA Recovery Team Leader. |
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| Cover featuring a USS Ticonderoga machine cancellation from December 20, 1972, signed by the recovery crew members: Steve O'Brien, Jerry Turley, Don Thompson, "Boh" Bohannon, Wayne Lazarn, Tim Keeney, Terry May, and Jon Smart. |
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| Apollo 17 recovery cover flown by helicopter, with a machine cancellation upon returning to port on December 22, 1972. |
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| Apollo 17 recovery team signed cover, featuring a machine cancellation upon returning to port on December 22, 1972. |
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| Photo: Apollo 17 crew members Ron Evans, Gene Cernan, and Harrison Schmitt during their final press conference on January 5, 1972. |
