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40 years ago, mankind took its last steps on the moon with the Apollo 17 lunar mission. A look at the Apollo project and other moon missions that might have been
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The crescent Earth rises above the lunar horizon in this undated NASA handout photograph taken from the Apollo 17 spacecraft in lunar orbit during the final lunar landing mission in the Apollo program. December 13, 2012 marks the 50th anniversary of the last manned lunar trip. REUTERS-NASA-Handout
This NASA remote camera file image shows the July 16, 1969 launching of Apollo 11, the first manned mission to land on the Moon, from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex in Florida. REUTERS-NASA-Handout-Files
United States astronaut Buzz Aldrin salutes the American flag on the surface of the Moon after he and fellow astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first men to land on the Moon during the Apollo 11 space mission July 20, 1969. REUTERS-Neil Armstrong-NASA-Handou
This NASA file image, dated July 20, 1969, shows one of the first footprints of Apollo 11 astronaut Edwin 'Buzz' Aldrin on the moon. REUTERS-NASA-Handout
U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong smiles in the lunar module after his historic moonwalk are pictured in this NASA handout photo. REUTERS-NASA-Handout
The Apollo 11 Lunar Module ascent stage, with astronauts Neil A. Armstrong and Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. aboard, is photographed from the Command and Service Modules in lunar orbit in this July, 1969 file photo. REUTERS-Handou
The Apollo 17 command module, with astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Ronald E. Evans and Harrison H. Schmitt aboard, nears splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean to conclude the final lunar landing mission in the Apollo program. REUTERS-Handou
Former U.S. President Richard M. Nixon welcomes the Apollo 11 astronauts aboard the U.S.S. Hornet in the Pacific Ocean in this July 1969 file photo. REUTERS-Handou
NASA astronaut Eugene A. Cernan makes a short checkout of the lunar rover during the early part of the first Apollo 17 extravehicular activity at the Taurus-Littrow landing site in this NASA handout picture taken forty years ago today, December 11, 1972, and released December 11, 2012. REUTERS-NASA-Handout
A prototype of NASA's lunar truck and pressurized lunar rover module is shown in this file photo from the Johnson Space Center in Houston September 8, 2008. REUTERS-NASA-Handout
Visitors gather around the Apollo 11 Command Module inside the Air and Space museum in Washington, D.C., July 20, 2004. REUTERS-Stringe
Miguel Carvajal projects a laser on the red moon during a lunar eclipse seen over Mamayuta Observatory in the Chilean Andes, 600 km north of Santiago, October 27, 2004. REUTERS-Carlos Barri
Researchers from the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology check a prototype lunar rover in Shanghai April 23, 2008. REUTERS-Stringer
The launch of a lunar heavy cargo launch vehicle, which uses a pair of longer Solid Rocket Boosters and five Space Shuttle Main Engines to put up to 125 metric tons in orbit, is pictured in this handout image released September 19, 2005. REUTERS-Handou
Vice President, Space Systems of Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems, Doug Young (R), and Leonard Nicholson, Northrop Grumman-Boeing's deputy program manager, introduce their design for the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), a successor to the Space Shuttle, at a news conference in Washington, D.C., October 12, 2005. REUTERS-Joshua Robert
The planet Venus (R) is seen after being eclipsed by the crescent moon, as seen from Amman, June 18, 2007. The event is also known as the occultation of Venus by the moon. REUTERS\Muhammad Hamed
A moon rock brought to Earth by Apollo 11, humans' first landing on the moon in July 1969, floats aboard the International Space Station in this NASA handout photo taken July 21, 2009. REUTERS-NASA-Handout
A new lunar lander, which has a similar design to the Apollo lander but can carry and support twice as many astronauts for twice as long as the Apollo model could, is pictured in this handout image released September 19, 2005. REUTERS-Handou
People watch a live video of the twin impacts of the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, and its rocket's upper stage as they impact the moon at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, October 9, 2009. REUTERS-Kim White
The Ares 1-X test rocket lifts off on a six-minute suborbital flight from launch pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, October 28, 2009. REUTERS-Pierre Ducharme
Kennedy Space Center Director Robert Cabana, a retired astronaut, speaks during a memorial service for Neil Armstrong in the Apollo Saturn V Center at Kennedy Space Center, Florida August 31, 2012. REUTERS-Michael Brown