Liftoff! “We have lift off with Apollo 14, 3 minutes past the hour.”
At 4:03 p.m. EST on January 31, 1971, astronauts Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell lifted off from Launch Pad 39A.
Shepard was the first American in space, his suborbital Mercury Redstone flight in Freedom 7 took place nearly a decade before Apollo 14 lifted off.
The amount of technological progress that was made in the ten years between Shepard’s flights is astounding. The Mercury Redstone rocket produced 78,000 pounds of thrust at liftoff, enough for Shepard’s first capsule, Freedom 7, to enter space on a suborbital trajectory.
The Saturn V produced well over 7.5 million pounds of thrust at liftoff, an incredible leap in performance that was necessary to take humans to the Moon.
On February 5, 1971, Shepard and Mitchell touched down at the Fra Mauro highlands, the landing site that was supposed to have been visited by the crew of Apollo 13. The astronauts spent two days on the Moon performing two extravehicular activities.
Explore the Moon and Conduct Scientific Experiments
Apollo 14’s primary objectives included:
- Landing on the Moon’s Fra Mauro Formation
- Collecting Lunar Samples
- Conducting Scientific Experiments
- Experiments included:
- Deploying the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP) to measure lunar seismic activity, magnetic fields, and more.
- Using tools like the Lunar Portable Magnetometer to study the Moon’s magnetic properties.
- Testing Lunar Equipment and Procedures
- Apollo 14 tested improvements made to mission procedures and equipment after Apollo 13’s aborted mission, ensuring safer operations for future lunar missions.
- Detailed Exploration of the Lunar Surface
- Astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell conducted two extravehicular activities (EVAs), exploring the surface for a total of 9 hours and 23 minutes.
Fun fact: During this mission, Commander Alan Shepard famously hit two golf balls on the Moon using a makeshift six-iron club! Watch it here.
Discover these Apollo 14 artifacts in the Cosmophere’s collection:
- A microfiche bible flown on Apollo 14, that’s part of the Cosmosphere’s collection.
- A Hasselblad camera flown on Apollo 14.
- An OMEGA watch, worn by Alan Shepard on Apollo 14.
- A mini silver coin, flown on Apollo 14.
