Ziggy Stardust and Hacky Sack: What life was like during the last time we went to the moon

The Artemis II rocket launched on Wednesday, carrying astronauts to the moon for the first time in more than half a century.

The four-person crew is headed for a 10-day, 230,000-mile trip around the moon and back — the most important test of the Orion spacecraft that NASA hopes will bring astronauts to the moon as soon as 2028 and Mars after that.

The last time humans went to the moon was the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.

The last Apollo mission included three astronauts: Command module pilot Ronald Evans orbited above while Eugene Cernan and Harrison “Jack” Schmitt – a geologist, for the first time – reached the Taurus-Littrow lunar valley.

The pair spent more than three days on the lunar surface, collecting about 250 kilograms of lunar rocks and soil samples. They set many records, including the longest lunar stay (75 hours), the most lunar samples collected and the longest mission at 12 days, 14 hours.

The crew knew it would be the last to visit the moon at least for the foreseeable future, as NASA had decided two years earlier to cancel the remaining Apollo missions, mainly due to budget cuts.

Cernan was the last person to walk on the moon on December 14, 1972. He acknowledged the importance of that moment out loud when he left the lunar surface, apparently nodding to Neil Armstrong’s infamous words since the moon landing in 1969.

“When we leave the moon with Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came – and God willing we will return: in peace, and hope, for all people,” said Cernan, who died in 2023.

A lot has changed in the 53 years since then. This is what life was like the last time astronauts went to the moon.

A banner year for geopolitics, pop culture and technology

The year 1972 is like a riot in many ways: the discovery of the Watergate scandal, “Bloody Sunday” in Northern Ireland, the “Munich Massacre” at the 1972 Olympics, the “Easter Offensive” of North Vietnam in the last years of the Vietnam War – and anti-war protests on college campuses and political rallies.

That was the year President Nixon announced no more deployments to Vietnam, and the year he made his first presidential visit to China.

The Volkswagen Beetle officially passed the Ford Model T as the most popular – and most produced – car in the world. And a gallon of regular gasoline costs 36 cents, or the equivalent of $2.53 a gallon today, according to AARP.

1972 was also a big year for cultural creations that are still loved. It marked the debut of David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust, the formation of ABBA, the opening of Lubricate on Broadway. The best-selling album of the year was by Neil Young harvest, and the biggest box office hit was The Godfatherwhich came out in March.

Fashion was dominated by bold colors and patterns, bell-bottoms, shawls, platform shoes and synthetic fabrics, as part of the “Polyester Ten.” Style icons included Bianca Jagger, Jane Birkin and Diana Ross.

There was a lot of content, but few ways to use it. 95 percent of US households own televisions, according to Census data, and only three commercial broadcast networks dominated the airwaves: ABC, CBS and NBC. Total newspaper circulation reached a record 62.5 million, before beginning to decline.

Indeed, it was a time of innovation – and not just in space. The digital clock has started. Atari released “Pong,” the first commercially successful video game. Other important inventions of that year include the floppy disk, the first handheld calculator (HP-35) and the Hacky Sack. McDonald’s Egg McMuffin entered the test market, and Shrinky Dinks were on the brink of creation.

According to Merriam Webster, some of the words recorded in print for the first time in 1972 include: animatronic, beer pong, bird flu, habanero, garage band, glam rock, lowrider, page-turner, sound bite, spaghetti strap, veggie burger, women’s studies and yard sale. Away!