On February 5, 1971, Apollo 14 astronauts Edgar Mitchell and Alan Shepard stepped onto the lunar surface in the first of two lunar excursions. In the image above, we see astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell deploying the U.S. flag on the lunar surface during the early moments of the mission’s first spacewalk, photographed by mission commander Alan B. Shepard Jr. They descended in the Lunar Module “Antares” to explore the Fra Mauro region of the moon, astronaut Stuart A. Roosa, command module pilot, remained with the Command and Service Module “Kitty Hawk” in lunar orbit.
During the two lunar excursions, approximately 94.35 pounds of Moon rocks were collected, and several scientific experiments were performed. Alan Shepard hit two golf balls on the lunar surface with a makeshift club he had brought with him, and in all, both astronauts spent 331⁄2 hours on the Moon, with almost 91⁄2 hours of EVA. Shepard and Mitchell successfully lifted Antares off the Moon to dock with the command module and, after a total of 34 lunar orbits, it was flown back to Earth where the three astronauts landed safely in the Pacific Ocean on February 9, 1971.
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