Friday Factor
Posted: Friday, December 14, 2007 4:58 PM by Sam Singal
By Brian Williams, Anchor and managing editor
We have several favorites in the broadcast tonight: including a story -- the favorite of many of us in the newsroom -- that came to us from our Miami station, having to do with something that happened at a Starbucks yesterday. We also have great reporting tonight on the baseball scandal, New Orleans' latest issue, and the environment. And of course: Making a Difference.
My son and I have tickets to the New York Giants victory over the Washington Redskins on Sunday night. So I'm going to ask our meteorologist Bill Karins to accelerate the timing of the snowstorm scheduled to arrive this weekend. I'm pretty sure he can do that for me. He knows people.
I exchanged emails today with a young commander in Iraq -- as I sat in my office looking at the plaza and the Christmas tree here at 30 Rock, he was looking out over a complex of military base housing units (some of them converted tractor-trailers) and humvees and latrines. He was between patrols. It was a healthy reminder (the same reason why I keep a medallion from the U.S. Army First Cavalry in my pocket every day -- since the day it was given to me in Ramadi) that we must think of these volunteers while we go on about our parallel lives. Especially this time of year.
Moon Shadow
Sharp-eyed readers will remember that last Friday, Andy Franklin and I put together a news quiz that included the question, “When did man first walk on the moon?” The answer of course is July 20, 1969 -- the day Neil Armstrong took a giant leap for mankind. But here’s a tougher question. Who was the LAST man to walk on the moon? And when did he take that final step?
Time’s up. The answer is Gene Cernan, the Commander of Apollo 17, who became the last man to walk on the moon when he climbed back aboard the lunar module Challenger on December 14, 1972 -- 35 years ago today. Apollo 17 was the last of six Apollo missions to land on the moon, and Cernan was -- and remains -- one of just 12 men ever to set foot there.
Stepping off the lunar surface that day, Cernan said, "As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. As I take these last steps from the surface for some time to come, I'd just like to record that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17.”
Gene Cernan’s fellow Apollo 17 moonwalker was lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt, who snapped this photo of Cernan in the module shortly after they stepped back inside. Note the lunar landscape out the window, and the moon dust on Cernan’s suit (and the proud smile on his face). Soon after this photo was taken, the Challenger lifted off, and Cernan and Schmitt rejoined fellow astronaut Ron Evans aboard the command module in lunar orbit. (Evans died in 1990; Cernan and Schmitt are still with us, both now in their early 70’s). Left behind on the surface of the moon, along with the lander: a Lunar Rover, an array of experiments and equipment, an American flag, and a television camera. The camera was still working, and it captured dramatic video of that final Apollo liftoff, 35 years ago today.
Apollo 17 will always be remembered as the last mission to the moon -- at least until mankind manages to travel there again. But there is another priceless legacy left by that mission.
On December 7, 1972, the day they set out for the moon, the crew of Apollo 17 looked back toward Earth and took what has become one of the best-known, most reproduced and most awe-inspiring photographs ever taken. Here it is. Truly, there’s no place like home.
We hope you can join us tonight.
