[Apollo 16]

Ex. Charles "Chuck" E. McKim, Operational Team Leader on the recovery and deactivation/decontamination team from North American Aviation (later North American Rockwell) for all Apollo missions.

FLOWN TO THE MOON AND EXPOSED TO THE VACUUM OF SPACE ON APOLLO 16

Crewed by Commander John Young, Lunar Module Pilot Charles Duke, and Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly, Apollo 16 launched from Kennedy Space Center on April 16, 1972 atop a Saturn V rocket. The spacecraft was made up of three parts: Command Module "Casper" and the Service Module (manufactured by North American Aviation, later North American Rockwell), as well as Lunar Module "Orion" (manufactured by Grumman Aircraft, later Grumman Aerospace). Mattingly named the Command Module after Casper the Friendly Ghost, noting, "There are enough serious things in the flight, so I picked a non-serious name."

Lunar Module "Orion" landed in the Descartes Highlands on April 21, 1972, after which John Young and Charlie Duke would spend just under three days on the lunar surface. While Ken Mattingly took photographs and conducted orbital scientific experiments in the Command and Service Module (CSM), Young and Duke set up the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP), investigated potential volcanic activity, and collected moon rocks with the aid of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), often affectionately known as the "Moon buggy." During the first of three lunar EVAs, Charlie Duke collected "Big Muley," a 26 pound (11.7 kg) lunar breccia and the largest "Moon rock" collected during the Apollo missions.

On April 24, Young and Duke lifted off from the lunar surface in "Orion" and successfully rendezvoused with Mattingly in the CSM. The crew transferred the lunar samples they had collected into the CSM, before jettisoning the LM on April 25, 1972; the crash of "Orion" on the Moon would help calibrate the seismometer that had been left on the surface by Young and Duke.

Approximately 10 minutes before re-entering the Earth's atmosphere on April 27, 1972, the crew jettisoned the Service Module. About 24 minutes later, Command Module "Casper" splashed down 189 nautical miles (350 km) southeast of the island of Kiritimati, where it and the crew were recovered by the USS Ticonderoga. During the subsequent deactivation/decontamination (D/D) of the Command Module, Charles "Chuck" E. McKim, one of the Operational Team Leaders for D/D on all Apollo and Skylab missions, was tasked with recovering material from "Casper," including salvaging this Unlock/Unlatch decal from the primary access hatch.

The Command Module primary access hatch was designed to fulfill multiple purposes: to provide a perfect seal for cabin pressurization, thermal protection during the extreme heat of re-entry, and a water-tight seal to secure the spacecraft during splashdown and recovery. The Unlock/Unlatch mechanism on the primary access hatch would have been used to gain access to the cabin and crew of the Command Module from the outside.