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| An Apollo 17 launch cover featuring the mission insignia cachet, with the printed text “KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, FLORIDA” beneath the insignia, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a machine cancel on December 7, 1972, signed by Gene Cernan, Ron Evans and Harrison Schmitt. This cover was originally from the family collection of Ron Evans. - 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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| An Apollo 17 Insurance Cover featuring the mission insignia, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a machine cancel 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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| An Apollo 17 launch cover featuring the "KSC Officials" stamped cachet, postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a machine cancel on December 7, 1972, 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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| An Apollo 17 launch cover from "Heritage Crafts", postmarked at Kennedy Space Center with a machine cancel on 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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| An Apollo 17 launch cover from "Astro Covers", postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 7, 1972. |
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| An Apollo 17 tracking station cover from “Honeysuckle Creek”, postmarked at Canberra City with a hand cancel on December 7, 1972.
Honeysuckle Creek Tracking Station 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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| An Apollo 17 moon landing cover from "Colorano", featuring a “Silk” cachet depicting the Apollo 17 astronauts on the lunar surface, postmarked at Houston, Texas, with a hand cancel on December 11, 1972. |
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| An Apollo 17 moonlanding cover from "NASA Manned Spacecraft Center Stamp Club", featuring a lunar chart segment repurposed as a cover, postmarked at Houston, Texas with a machine cancel on December 11, 1972, signed by Ron Evans, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. - RegencyStamps |
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| An Apollo 17 Moon cover from "Colorano", featuring a "Silk" cachet depicting the Apollo 17 astronauts during their lunar rover excursion, postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 13, 1972. |
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| An Apollo 17 lunar lift-off cover featuring the Lunar Module, Challenger, ascended from the moon, leaving its descent stage behind on the lunar surface as intended. The cover was postmarked at Houston, Texas, with a machine cancel on December 14, 1972. |
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| An Apollo 17 lunar lift-off cover from "SpaceCraft Swanson", postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 14, 1972, signed by Gene Cernan. |
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| An Apollo 17 cover from "Astro Covers", featuring a photograph of the Command Module, America, taken from the Lunar Module during rendezvous and docking. This cover was postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 14, 1972. |
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| An Apollo 17 cover from "Astro Covers", featuring Ron Evans during his spacewalk to retrieve film cassettes from the Service Module’s Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) bay, postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 17, 1972. |
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| An Apollo 17 cover from "Orbit Covers", commemorating the crew’s in-flight news conference held 110,000 miles from Earth on December 18, 1972, highlighting discoveries made during their 75 hours at the Taurus-Littrow Valley, postmarked at Cape Canaveral with a machine cancel on December 18, 1972.
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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| An Apollo 17 recovery cover featuring a magenta “Morris Beck” rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on December 19, 1972, signed by Ron Evans, Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt.
All recovery-date hand cancellations for the Primary Recovery Ship (PRS) were applied onshore in Hawaii rather than aboard the recovery ship. |
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| An Apollo 17 recovery cover featuring a magenta “Morris Beck” rubber-stamped cachet, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on December 19, 1972. This hand cancel is an unusual variation with the month "DEC" missing. |
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| A Apollo 17 recovery cover with a printed “Morris Beck B884” cachet, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on December 19, 1972, signed by Gene Cernan. |
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| An Apollo 17 Captain's Cover from the USS Ticonderoga, postmarked in Hawaii with a USS Ticonderoga hand cancel on December 19, 1972, Gene Cernan, Ron Evans, and Harrison Schmitt. - Heritage Auctions. | |
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| An Apollo 17 Captain's Cover from the USS Ticonderoga, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a very rare machine cancel on December 20, 1972. The ship’s Post Office was closed on December 19, making December 20 the earliest available date for an onboard postmark. |
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| Apollo 17 recovery cover from the USS Ticonderoga, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a very rare machine cancel on 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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| An Apollo 17 recovery cover featuring helicopter flight details, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a machine cancel on December 22, 1972, upon returning to port. |
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| An Apollo 17 recovery cover, featuring autographs of the recovery team, postmarked aboard USS Ticonderoga with a machine cancel on December 22, 1972, upon returning to port. |
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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. |
