617 a
Ken Mattingly, John Young, or Charles Duke

The full Moon after transEarth injection

Apollo 16, April 16-27, 1972

Unreleased photograph, vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA AS16-121-19452” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin, with three filing holes in top margin

617 b
Taken by a 16 mm Maurer camera mounted by Ken Mattingly on the hatch of the Command Module Casper

The “deep space” EVA of Ken Mattingly during the homeward journey to Earth

Apollo 16, April 16-27, 1972, 218:47:06 to 219:46:00 GET

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA MSC caption and “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-72-37001” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin

617 c
NASA / Unidentified Photographer

The crew back to Earth

Apollo 16, April 27, 1972, 265:51:00 GET

Three vintage gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper, each 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), the first and second with NASA KSC captions on the versos, the third with NASA MSC caption on the verso and numbered “NASA S-72-36262” in black in top margin
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

617 b
Jacobs, pp. 114-15.

617 c
Jacobs, p. 106-107 (last photograph).

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Lot Essay

617 a
The photograph showing the full Moon showing an hemisphere not visible from Earth was taken with the 250mm telephoto lens.

“It’s another one of these unbelievably spectacular sights. One of the few sensations of speed you can have in a spaceship. You can, during the initial departure, you can actually sense that the Moon is getting smaller,” said Ken Mattingly (Chaikin, Voices, p. 119).

From the mission transcript during a TV transmission to Earth as the spacecraft was about 8,000 nautical miles away from the Moon:

203:14:07 Duke: You know, Pete (Peterson at Mission Control), if you took this view that y’all just saw of the Moon and put in a movie, everybody would say you’re faking it. It doesn’t look like that. And it’s just - you can’t see any stars, just pure blackness, and that white-gray body sitting out there is really... [...]
203:18:01 Duke: Boy, I can hardly believe the last 3 days, Pete. That was - The Cayley Plains is really the most fascinating place I’ve ever been in my life and will ever hope to go, and we sure had a good time collecting all the rocks.
203:18:19 Peterson (Mission Control): Roger.

617 b
Assisted by Charles Duke in the open hatch of the Command Module Casper (foreground) during his EVA, Mattingly (wearing Young’s lunar EVA red-striped helmet to protect him from the bright Sun) inspects the SIM bay of the Service Module and retrieves film from the Mapping and Panoramic cameras. This view is a frame from motion picture film exposed by the Maurer camera about 173,000 nautical miles away from Earth.

“You open the hatch, and you go outside, and it’s dark. I mean, there’s Sun shining on the side of the spacecraft; you can tell that because it’s_you can see it; it’s illuminated. You know, and around the side is black, because there is no Sun over there, but I ain’t over there anyhow so that doesn’t matter. You kinda walk down this rail, and you look around. And because you’re going out in the Sunlight, you’ve got this [...] gold reflective visor that keeps the stuff from coming in, and then there’s this UV shield underneath that.
You look around, and you don’t see anything. There’s no stars out there. That’s really strange.
In fact, the only thing there is is this platform I’m holding on to. That’s all there is! Nothing else!
Nothin’. I’ve never seen anything like it! You had to turn your body to see [the Earth and the Moon]. And you can, and there’s a thing that is the size of [an orange], and that’s one of them, and there’s one over there, and it’s a crescent, and it’s not quite so big, but_that’s all there is! [...] That’s the only time I ever felt what it means to be in space. There’s nothing around. Absolutely nothing. No up, no down,’ remembered Ken Mattingly (Chaikin, Voices, p. 122).

617 c
“Apollo 16 splashdown. The CM entered the central Pacific Ocean approximately 215 miles southeast of Christmas Island to successfully conclude the Apollo 16 mission 265 hr 51 min after launch. Television cameras on board the U.S.S. Ticonderoga and its helicopters transmitted real-time coverage of the landing to the world by way of communication satellite” (NASA SP-315, p. 4.32).

The three crew members were picked up by helicopter and flown to the deck of the USS Ticonderoga for homecoming ceremonies.

“By the time I got back, I was so goddanged tired I could hardly walk. I know I couldn’t possibly
have had more than a dozen hours of sleep, cumulative. And it’s not concern. It’s just you don’t want to miss anything!”
Ken Mattingly (Chaikin, Voices, p. 109)