On this day in 1972, the Apollo lunar-landing program ended. 3 astronauts had traveled to the moon and back to the Pacific Ocean 10 days before the launch was held at Cape Canaveral in Florida.

In 1969, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) accomplished President John F. Kennedy’s goal of putting a man on the moon and safely returning him to Earth. The trip was named Apollo 11. From 1969-1972, 6 missions to the moon and back were successful; there was also one aborted mission, Apollo 13. During the Apollo 17 mission, two astronauts, Eugene A. Cernan and Harrison H. Schmitt, stayed for a record total of 75 hours on the moon, conducting 3 separate experiments in the Lunar Rover vehicle and collecting 243 pounds of rock and soil samples.

The last official Apollo mission was conducted in the July of 1975 when an Apollo spacecraft successfully docked with the Soviet Soyuz 19 spacecraft in orbit around the Earth. It was fitting that the Apollo program, which first visited the moon under the banner of, “We came in peace for all mankind,” ended on a note of peace and international cooperation.