1972 saw humanity's last crewed mission to the Moon of the 20th century,

Apollo 17 Apollo 17 (December 7–19, 1972) was the final mission of NASA's Apollo program, the most recent time humans have set foot on the Moon or traveled beyond low Earth orbit. Commander Gene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt walked on ...

Launches

This is a list of

spaceflight Spaceflight (or space flight) is an application of astronautics to fly spacecraft into or through outer space, either with or without humans on board. Most spaceflight is uncrewed and conducted mainly with spacecraft such as satellites in or ...

s launched in 1972.

Launches from the Moon

Deep space rendezvous in 1972

*February 21 – Luna 20, 55g from '' Apollonius Crater'' (sample return mission) *April 21 –

Apollo 16 Apollo 16 (April 1627, 1972) was the tenth crewed mission in the United States Apollo space program, administered by NASA, and the fifth and penultimate to land on the Moon. It was the second of Apollo's " J missions", with an extended sta ...

, 95 kg from ''

Descartes Highlands The Descartes Highlands is an area of lunar highlands located on the near side that served as the landing site of the American Apollo 16 mission in early 1972. The Descartes Highlands is located in the area surrounding Descartes crater, after whi ...

'' (sample return mission) *July 22 – Venera 8 atmospheric probe worked for 50 min on the Venerian surface *December 11 –

, 111 kg from '' Taurus–Littrow'' (sample return mission)

References

Footnotes

{{Orbital launches in 1972 Spaceflight by year