[Apollo 18]

THE TRANSLUNAR INJECTION PROCEDURES MANUAL FOR THE CANCELLED APOLLO 18 MISSION 

Detailing the steps necessary to complete translunar injection, setting the next Apollo spacecraft on its trajectory to the Moon.  

According to a NASA Manned Space Flight Weekly Report dated July 28, 1969, Apollo 18 would have landed at Schroter’s Valley on the lunar surface in February of 1971. A later report from NASA dated March 11, 1970, targeted the Copernicus Crater for the Apollo 18 mission. NASA would announce the cancellation of Apollo 18 and 19 six months later in September 1970, citing budget cuts. John Young, veteran of the Gemini program as well as Apollo missions 10 and 16, believed that NASA’s fear of losing astronauts led to the cancellation of future missions after the close call of Apollo 13. 

The Apollo crew of this cancelled mission was slated to be commanded by Richard F. Gordon Jr. (CDR). Vance D. Brand was selected to be Command Module Pilot (CMP). Harrison Schmitt was meant to be Apollo 18’s Lunar Module Pilot (LMP). However, Schmitt was bumped to the Apollo 17 crew after 18 was cancelled as NASA faced pressure to bring a scientist to the Moon. Schmitt, a geologist, is the only scientist to have travelled to the lunar surface.