Apollo 16 astronauts. Original film strip showing three photographs taken by US astronauts on NASA's Apollo 16 mission to the Moon. Apollo 16 was the fifth Apollo mission to land on the Moon. It launched on 16 April 1972. The lunar landing took place on 21 April 1972. John W. Young (bottom picture, jumping and saluting flag), and Charles Duke (top two pictures, saluting flag) landed in the Descartes Highlands in the lunar module Orion (left). They spent 71 hours there, testing their lunar rover (also at left), and collecting samples of Moon rock. Thomas Ken Mattingly remained in orbit in the command module. There were eleven manned Apollo missions, from 1968-1972. A total of 12 US astronauts walked on the Moon.