The Apollo 17 lunar module "Challenger" departed the Moon today in 1972. On board were Harrison Schmitt and Gene Cernan, the last astronauts to walk on the Moon. LM liftoff was captured by a TV camera on the LRV that was left behind. More on how that happened: https://s.si.edu/3IP4eoD | National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

Apr. 21, 1972: The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) is a battery-powered four-wheeled rover used on the Moon in the last three missions of the American Apollo program (15, 16, and 17) during 1971 and 1972. Built by Boeing, each LRV has a mass of 460 pounds (210 kg) without payload and was designed for a top speed of 8 miles per hour (13 km/h), although it achieved a top speed of 11.2 miles per hour (18 km/h) on its last mission, Apollo 17. Each LRV was carried to the Moon folded up in the Lunar Module

The Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) was an electric vehicle designed to operate in the low-gravity vacuum of the Moon and to be capable of traversing the lunar surface, allowing the Apollo astronauts to extend the range of their surface extravehicular activities. Three LRVs were driven on the Moon, one on Apollo 15 by astronauts David Scott and Jim Irwin, one on Apollo 16 by John Young (the one driving in this video) and Charles Duke, and one on Apollo 17 by Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. Each LRV