The Last Apollo

Scheduled for December, the sixth and last manned Apollo mission to land on the moon began the long process of gearing up last week as its spacecraft and Saturn rocket were positioned on the launching pad at Cape Kennedy. TIME Correspondent Donald Neff filed this report:

As 3,500 persons looked on, the Apollo 17 spaceship and booster rolled out of the assembly building at the Kennedy Space Center. A gibbous moon hung high in the Florida sky while the rising sun splashed the white rocket with golden rays. It was a stunning tableau of man's inventiveness. Yet it was a sight not without irony.

This is the last moonship. After Apollo 17, America's manned voyages to the moon come to an end. Though there is speculation that Russia may begin moon landings this decade, no American is likely to return to the moon in this century. That realization cast a nostalgic sadness over the spectators, most of them space workers and their families.

The crew that will make the last flight watched the 363-ft. vehicle moving at less than a mile an hour toward its pad 3 1/2 miles away. "This is going to bring to a close the Apollo program," said Flight Commander Gene Cernan. "I hope by the time we get back home from the moon, we can convey that this is just the beginning of man's movement into an infinity of time and space."

A short distance away, a man who helped the original vision come true parted the curtains in his office and watched the gleaming rocket. "It's sad," said Kurt H. Debus, director of the Kennedy Space Center. Now 63, Debus began firing rockets that were little more than firecrackers with Wernher von Braun in Peenemunde in the 1930s. The idea of landing a man on the moon in those days was barely a dream. Debus has been in charge of every manned launch conducted by the U.S.; there has never been a failure. He recalls with a certain humor that an Army general told him in 1947 that no rocket could go faster than 700 m.p.h. Apollo goes 25,000 m.p.h.

"What do I think when I look at Apollo 17?" mused Debus. "It's beautiful. We have pioneered. We have worked hard. There is a terrific satisfaction in having been permitted to be part of it all. It was only after great soul searching that we recommended sending man to the moon back in 1961. It has been a happy life."

Polar lee. Debus let his gaze linger on the mighty Saturn V rocket beneath the Apollo 17 spaceship. "The Saturn V is the end too," said Debus. "I don't believe we will build a stronger rocket in this century. The Saturn can boost a payload of 200,000 lbs. into orbit. If you want more payload than that, it is cheaper to launch several Saturns than to develop a new rocket."

Debus compared the past and future of the space program to the difference between the excitement of discovering the South Pole and the somberness of staying there to study the polar ice. "We are in the age of economizing now. In the background is the shining star of adventure. But now we must bring the benefits of space to man."

Next year there will be the Skylab program, in which nine astronauts will be launched into earth orbit for stays of up to 56 days. That will be over by early 1974.

The following year will bring an international launch, with both Russian and American astronauts meeting in earth orbit. Then there will be no more manned flights until 1978, when the space shuttle program begins. The shuttle will operate in earth orbit and will be capable of taking scores of people into space on one flight.

Out by the rocket, Apollo 17 Crewman Dr. Harrison Schmitt observed that "we are the first truly space-faring nation in all mankind." Near by, one of the space workers who will be laid off along with about 1,000 others after Apollo's flight said: "Yeah, but not for long."

Within six hours Apollo 17 was snugly on its pad and workers were scurrying around it to prepare for the Dec. 6 launch. Cernan and Schmitt will spend three days exploring the moon, while Lieut. Commander Ronald Evans orbits above them. They are scheduled to return to earth on Dec. 19. Then, what President John F. Kennedy called "great, new American enterprise" when he launched the Apollo program in 1961 will finally be over.

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