Apollo 16 was the tenth manned mission in the
American Apollo space program, the fifth and penultimate to
land on the
Moon and the first to land in the
lunar highlands. The second of the so-called
J-missions, the mission was crewed by Commander
John Young,
Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke and
Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly. Launched from the
Kennedy Space Center in
Florida at 12:54 PM EST on April 16, 1972, the mission lasted eleven days, one hour, and fifty-one minutes, and concluded at 2:45 PM EST on April 27.