In addition to being the first U.S. commercial lander on the moon, Nova-C would also be the first U.S. spacecraft to land on the moon since Apollo 17’s Challenger lunar module in December 1972.
They discovered that some of the tremors were being produced by the descent stage of the Apollo 17 lunar module, left behind on the lunar surface 51 years ago. "Every lunar morning when the sun ...
He was assigned in August 1971 to fly on the last mission, Apollo 17, replacing Joe Engle as Lunar Module Pilot. Mr Schmitt landed on the Moon with commander Gene Cernan in December 1972.