ABSTRACT
After the near-miss of Apollo 13, fourteen months passed before the next flight lifted off. In the interim, two more missions were cut from the project, Apollo 17 would be the last of the series. As the agency prepared for the next launch, in January 1971, the stakes were high for the mission commander, Alan Shepard. Following the first American moon landing, the Soviet Union literally lowered its sights, concentrating more on long-duration earth orbit flights and the construction of an orbiting space station than on continued efforts to get to the moon. After several more tries, a possible solution was radioed up from mission control. On the off chance that the command module probe had somehow not been sufficiently cleaned, there could be some small debris that was interfering with its connection to the lunar module. During their next visit to the surface, the astronauts were surprised to find the front-wheel drive of their rover miraculously restored.
