APOLLO 16

Misbehaving engines were among the mishaps on the penultimate Apollo landing. 50 years on, Ezzy Pearson looks back at the mission

- Ezzy Pearson

When a rubella scare grounded Command Module pilot Ken Mattingly in 1970, he was forced to watch from the sidelines as his two crewmates headed off to the Moon without him on the ill-fated Apollo 13. Two years later in 1972, Mattingly hoped for better luck on his new mission, Apollo 16. Unfortunately, while Apollo 13 had been an Oscar-worthy triumph over tragedy, Apollo 16 would turn out to be something of a farce.

In 1972, morale at NASA was low. A curtailed Apollo programme was heading into its final two missions and many staff members were being laid off. Meanwhile, the Soviets were making headlines with the Lunokhod rover and its robotic sample return missions, doing the work of the Apollo missions at a fraction of the cost and without risking human lives.

Not that the Apollo astronauts themselves minded the risk. In fact, they were pushing for more adventurous missions following the success of Apollo 15. Perhaps to the rugged landscape of the southern pole? Or even the lunar far side. Instead, NASA played it safe, and the fifth lunar landing was set to visit the equatorial lunar highlands for the first time. And so, on 16 April at 17:54 UT, Mattingly along with Commander John Young and Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke launched on their way to Descartes crater, an area believed to be the site of past volcanic activity.

Though the launch went well enough, it wasn't long before the first of Apollo 16's many problems began. On the second day, as the crew were mounting the Lunar Module on the nose of the Command and +Service Module (CSM) and removing the former from its housing, Mattingly noticed a steady stream of white particles flowing from the Lunar Module's propellant tanks. Were they venting fuel?

"I think you're going to have to get in the Lunar Module and take a look at the... systems' gauges to tell what's going on here," came the order from the ground.