NASA; J. Young, K. Mattingly or C. Duke [Apollo 16]

573 a
On launch day the astronauts “ate breakfast in their crew quarters, suited up and travelled about
13 km to the launch site where they boarded the Apollo Command Module to await the final 2 ½ hours prior to launch” (NASA caption, second photograph).


Commander John Young, making his second trip to the Moon, was photographed during suiting up while speaking with Director of Flight Operation Donald Slayton (first photograph).
He was joined by Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke reviewing one last time the flight plan while undergoing spacesuit pressure checks prior to his launch (second photograph) and Command Module Pilot Thomas Mattingly about to enter the spacecraft (third photograph), who was pulled
from his previous Apollo 13 assignment after being exposed to the measles.

Mattingly occupied the center couch during liftoff, with Young at his left and Duke at his right.

573 b
The huge, 363-feet tall Apollo 16 (Spacecraft 113/Lunar Module 11/Saturn 510) space vehicle is
launched from Pad A, launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center (KSC), Florida, at 12:54:00.569 p.m.(EST), April 16, 1972, on a lunar landing mission.

573 d
“Going to the Moon is an extraordinary thing! It doesn’t matter if you’re first or last; it’s extraordinary.”
Ken Mattingly (Chaikin, Voices, p. 165)

573 e
From the mission transcript after translunar Injection:

002:42:10 Duke: Look at that horizon start to streak.
002:42:18 Young: You want to swap seats?
002:42:14 Duke: Yeah. [...]
002:42:29 Duke: Give - give us the camera.
002:42:30 Mattingly: Yeah. [...]
002 43 31 Duke: Okay, that’s a 250-millimeter lens
you got - you want there. We don’t want that. We
want a Earth picture.