The Apollo program was divided into mission types coded A through J in increasing order of complexity. A-type missions were just simple rockets, with no payload or missions, created purely as tests of concept. Apollo 11, which landed the first men on the moon, was a G-type mission. H-J-types, with some overlapping, were also manned moon missions, which included extended stays and movement about the surface on the Lunar Roving Vehicle, a dune buggy modified for space.

On this day, December 7, in 1972, Apollo 17, the last of the U.S. moon missions and the last American one to take humans beyond the low Earth orbit, took off from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The Apollo 17 brought with it the only trained geologist to walk on the moon, lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt. Its astronauts also covered the greatest distance on the LRV, and returned the greatest amount of surface samples out of all the missions. Eugene Cernan, commander of the mission, remains the last man, American or otherwise, to walk on the Moon.