As the third manned lunar mission Apollo14's objective was to perform a detailed lunar exploration. Apollo14's astronauts were Alan Shepard Jr., Stuart Roosa, and Edgar Mitchell. Launched on January 31, 1971 Apollo 14 reached the moon on February 5, 1971.

The lunar module, Antares touched down on the area of the moon called the Fra Mauro highlands. A color television camera mounted on the lunar module  provided live coverage of the astronauts and their descent to the moon. Astronauts on the lunar surface unloaded equipment for conducting experiments. Some of the equipment unloaded was the modularized equipment transporter (MET),  the laser ranging retro reflector (LRRR), and the Apollo Lunar-surface experiments package (ALSEP).

  All equipment was loaded on to the MET for climbing the geological traverse up the side of the cone crater.