We can just barely see Jack Schmitt and Gene Cernan through the right- and left-hand windows of the lunar module Challenger. They have just completed three days exploring the surface of the Moon and are about to rendezvous with Ron Evans in the mother ship America. Their radar antenna is locked onto America, to measure range and rate of closure. We can see the squarish front hatch that Gene and Jack used to enter and exit on the lunar surface. The round hatch, which they will use after docking to move rock samples and equipment back to the command module, is not visible, but it is on the top just behind the radar antenna. The shapes of the lunar module are interesting to look at and they were fun to paint. Challenger has the look of a machine built to do a specific thing well and efficiently. This was all-important to Gene and Jack because if, for example, the rocket engine we see at the bottom did not do its job, they would never come home.

I remember on Apollo 12 when we had rocketed back into lunar orbit, and we were going fast again, I felt we were really going to make it. It was a great way to start home.