Apollo 14 was the eighth crewed Apollo mission and the third to land on the Moon. Launched on January 31, 1971, it carried Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell. The mission was NASA's critical return to flight after the near-disaster of Apollo 13, and bore the weight of proving that the program could continue safely.

The crew's target was the Fra Mauro highlands — the same geological formation that Apollo 13 had been unable to reach. Shepard and Mitchell landed the Lunar Module Antares on February 5 and conducted two EVAs totaling over 9 hours. Their most ambitious traverse was a grueling uphill hike toward the rim of Cone Crater, pulling the Modular Equipment Transporter (MET) — a two-wheeled handcart and the only wheeled vehicle used on the Moon before the Lunar Rover. Despite coming within roughly 65 feet of the crater rim, the rugged terrain and lack of landmarks made it impossible to confirm their location, and they turned back just short of the goal.

At age 47, Alan Shepard became the oldest person to walk on the Moon and the only one of the original Mercury Seven astronauts to reach the lunar surface. In a lighthearted moment at the end of EVA 2, he attached a 6-iron club head to a sample tool handle and hit two golf balls — the first and only golf shots ever taken on the Moon. Meanwhile, CMP Stuart Roosa orbited above in the Command Module Kitty Hawk, carrying hundreds of tree seeds that were later germinated and planted around the world as the famous “Moon Trees.”

Apollo 14 returned 94 pounds of lunar samples, deployed an ALSEP science station, and proved the Apollo system was sound after the Apollo 13 crisis. The crew splashed down safely on February 9, 1971 in the South Pacific and were recovered by the USS New Orleans. The mission restored confidence in NASA's ability to continue lunar exploration.