it was a failure in its initial mission, but in reality it was a try triumph in the ability of people to overcome adversity. that triumph likely gave allen shepherd, the man lovell switched flights with to walk on the moon nine months later. shepherd made the moon his low gravity driving range launching two golf balls with a 6 iron he smuggled aboard apolo 14. i fantasized about landing on the moon, what i was going to do and how i would act on the lunar surface. but lovell would never get the chance to go back. so close and yet so far. apolo 15 launched july 26th, 1971 with david scott, james irwin and alfred warden uh barred. apolo 16 launched in 1972. it carried gong young, maddingly and charles duke. they were the first missions