Apollo 16

Apollo 16 was the tenth crewed space flight in NASA's Apollo program. It was the 5th of six Apollo missions to land on the Moon. It was a J-Type mission, which meant that the astronauts would have a longer stay on the Moon. Launched on April 16, 1972, Ken Mattingly stayed in orbit around the Moon in the Apollo Command Module, Casper. He spent 3 days, 9 hours and 28 minutes by himself, the longest solo US space flight.^[1]: 77 On the Moon, astronauts John Young and Charles Duke got to put the Lunar Roving Vehicle ("moon buggy") through a series of tests, including s-turns, hairpin turns and quick stops.^[2] John Young was the commander of the mission.

Apollo 16

Mission type	Crewed lunar landing
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1972-031A
SATCAT no.	06000
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Apollo CSM Apollo LM
Manufacturer	CSM: North American Rockwell LM: Grumman
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	John Young Charles Duke Ken Mattingly
Orbital parameters
Reference system	Selenocentric
Apollo program ← Apollo 15 Apollo 17 →

A satellite was launched on the return journey to examine the Moon's mass and gravitation, space particles near the Moon, and the interaction of magnetic fields between the Moon and Earth.^[2] The mission was stopped one day early as there were several problems with the spacecraft.^[3]