Apollo 14
Mission: Apollo 14
The mission of the aborted Apollo 13 was accomplished by the crew of Apollo 14,
launched on January 31, 1971, after modifications were carried out in the spacecraft to
prevent the malfunctions encountered by Apollo 13. Captain Shepard, who was promoted
after his successful suborbital flight in 1961 (see "Vostok and Mercury Programs"),
and Commander Edgar D. Mitchell, also of the navy, successfully landed the LM in the
rugged Fra Mauro region of the moon, while astronaut Stuart A. Roosa of the air force
remained in lunar orbit in the command module. Shepard and Mitchell spent more than 9
hours exploring an area believed to contain some of the oldest rocks yet recovered,
collecting about 43 kg (about 96 lb) of geological samples and deploying scientific
instruments. The astronauts returned to earth without incident on February 9, 1971.
Apollo 14 Patch
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