Apollo 17 Liftoff from Moon - December 14, 1972

Lift-off of Apollo 17 Lunar Module ascent stage is captured by a television camera mounted on the lunar rover which the crew parked about 145 meters east of the spacecraft. The ascent stage ignites and climbs, spacecraft foil and dust fly in all directions. Ed Fendell in Houston had to anticipate the timing of ignition, lift-off, and the rate of climb, to control the camera tilt to follow the ascent. "We're on our way Houston" is the voice of Apollo 17 Commander Eugene Cernan. The clip ends as LM "Challenger" reaches an altitude of 1,500 feet. After docking with the Command Module, the ascent stage was jettisoned and returned to the lunar surface. Its impact was recorded by four geophones deployed by Apollo 17 astronauts, and by each ALSEP at the Apollo 12, 14, 15 and 16 landing sites.