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The final moon walk will begin at 4:33 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 13. Cernan and Schmitt will stop at the base of North Massif for more ancient samples. Then they will veer eastward to more gentle slopes, which they have dubbed the Sculptured Hills. Heading south again, they will stop at 260-ft.-wide Van Serg (the puckish pen name of one of Schmitt's Harvard geology professors) Crater, and thread their way through a field of giant boulders that may have been ejected from nearby Sherlock Crater.
In the final hour of the third EVA, Cernan and Schmitt will gather their samples and gear, possibly make a last check of the experimental station and park the rover far enough from Challenger to protect the TV camera from the blastoff. Schmitt will climb back into Challenger first, briefly leaving Cernan alone on the surface of the moon—the last American to stand in lunar dust for some time to come. According to friends, Cernan is planning to say—and perhaps do—something appropriate for the memorable moment.
At 5:56 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 14, Challenger's ascent stage will lift Cernan and Schmitt off the moon to rejoin Ron Evans in the orbiting America. The dramatic launch should be photographed by the rover's camera. Early next morning, Challenger's ascent stage will be sent crashing into the upper slopes of South Massif; the impact will also give seismologists another jolting "look" at the moon's interior. Almost two days later, as the astronauts pass around the far side of the moon for the last time, they will fire America's main engine to kick the ship out of lunar orbit and begin the three-day journey home. At 2:24 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 19, America should splash down in the balmy waters of the South Pacific, about 350 miles southeast of Samoa, ending the Apollo project's farewell mission to the moon.
*Named for the heavenly constellation Taurus ("The Bull") and the 19th century Austrian astronomer-mathematician Johann von Littrow.