Apollo 16 - Spacecraft Locations

Spacecraft Locations

The aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga delivered the Apollo 16 command module to the North Island Naval Air Station, near San Diego, California on Friday, 5 May 1972. On Monday, 8 May 1972, ground service equipment being used to empty the residual toxic reaction control system fuel in the command module tanks exploded in a Naval Air Station hangar. A total of 46 people were sent to the hospital for 24 to 48 hours observation, most suffering from inhalation of toxic fumes. Most seriously injured was a technician who suffered a fractured kneecap when the GSE cart overturned on him. A hole was blown in the hangar roof 250 feet above; about 40 windows in the hangar were shattered. The command module suffered a three-inch gash in one panel.

The Apollo 16 command module Casper is on display at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The lunar module ascent stage separated 24 April 1972 but a loss of attitude control rendered it out of control. It orbited the Moon for about a year. Its impact site on the Moon is unknown.

Duke donated some flown items, including a lunar map, to Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. He left two items on the Moon, both of which he photographed. The most famous is a plastic-encased photo portrait of his family (NASA Photo AS16-117-18841). The reverse of the photo is signed by Duke's family and bears this message: "This is the family of Astronaut Duke from Planet Earth. Landed on the Moon, April 1972." The other item was a commemorative medal issued by the United States Air Force, which was celebrating its 25th anniversary in 1972. He took two medals, leaving one on the Moon and donating the other to the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base museum.

In 2006, shortly after Hurricane Ernesto affected Bath, North Carolina, eleven year-old Kevin Schanze discovered a piece of metal debris on the ground near his beach home. Schanze and a friend discovered a "stamp" on the 36-inch (91 cm) flat metal sheet, which upon further inspection turned out to be a faded copy of the Apollo 16 mission insignia. NASA later confirmed the object to be a piece of the first stage of the Saturn V rocket that launched Apollo 16 into space. In July 2011, after returning the piece of debris at NASA's request, the sixteen-year-old Schanze was given an all-access tour of the Kennedy Space Center as well as VIP seating for the launch of STS-135, the final mission of the Space Shuttle program.