Relive the dramatic Apollo 14 launch and moon landing, 50 years later
On Jan. 31, 1971, NASA sent the Apollo 14 mission skyward.
The eighth crewed mission in the Apollo program (and third one to reach the surface of the Moon) lifted off on a Sunday afternoon with NASA astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell on board. They reached the surface of Earth's only natural satellite five days later.
The mission led by Commander Shepard and his crew was something of a second take. One year earlier, the infamous Apollo 13 mission came to a premature end due to equipment failures. The astronauts on board made it back home, but they weren't able to stage a lunar landing as intended.
Apollo 14 was the make-up attempt, with the mission's lunar landing set to touch down in the same location that the previous mission aimed to reach. Once again the mission was almost scuttled when Shepard and his crew dealt with equipment failures. But everything worked out in the end.
The Jan. 31 launch kicked off just after 4:00 p.m. ET, following a 40-minute weather delay. The whole mission was originally meant to proceed in 1970, though it was delayed following the events of the Apollo 13 mission and subsequent investigation. (The earlier mission is notably the subject of Steven Spielberg's 1995 blockbuster, Apollo 13, starring Tom Hanks.)
Days later, on Feb. 5 and after spending a day in orbit around the Moon, the mission's lunar lander touched down at a landing site in the Fra Mauro Formation. The location was chosen because of its proximity to a crater that was to be investigated as part of the mission.
Shepard's first words as he set foot on the Moon were: "And it's been a long way, but we're here." The crew spent roughly a day there, gathering lunar samples and collecting still and video imagery to be reviewed once they got back home.
In what was perhaps the most memorable moment of the mission, Shepard pulled out two golf balls and the head of a golf club, the latter of which he affixed to one of the crew's sampling tools. He used his makeshift golf club to take some swings at the balls, knocking one out for "miles and miles and miles," as he described it.
Shepard ultimately discard the sampling tool portion of his makeshift club, throwing it as if it were a javelin. He brought the golf club head back home, though, and it resides here on Earth to this day in New Jersey's U.S. Golf Association Museum. The footage of Shepard swinging his "club," seen below, is a genuine piece of history.
Apollo 14 left the lunar surface in the early afternoon of Feb. 6, arriving back home three days later on Feb. 9. The mission's command module, dubbed Kitty Hawk (where the Wright Brothers first took flight), splashed down in the South Pacific Ocean, where the astronauts were recovered.
Adam Rosenberg is a Senior Games Reporter for Mashable, where he plays all the games. Every single one. From AAA blockbusters to indie darlings to mobile favorites and browser-based oddities, he consumes as much as he can, whenever he can.Adam brings more than a decade of experience working in the space to the Mashable Games team. He previously headed up all games coverage at Digital Trends, and prior to that was a long-time, full-time freelancer, writing for a diverse lineup of outlets that includes Rolling Stone, MTV, G4, Joystiq, IGN, Official Xbox Magazine, EGM, 1UP, UGO and others.Born and raised in the beautiful suburbs of New York, Adam has spent his life in and around the city. He's a New York University graduate with a double major in Journalism and Cinema Studios. He's also a certified audio engineer. Currently, Adam resides in Crown Heights with his dog and his partner's two cats. He's a lover of fine food, adorable animals, video games, all things geeky and shiny gadgets.
