[Apollo 16] KEN MATTINGLY'S HISTORIC DEEP SPACE EVA: assisted by Charles Duke in the hatch of CS...

[Apollo 16] KEN MATTINGLY'S HISTORIC DEEP SPACE EVA: assisted by Charles Duke in the hatch of CSM Casper NASA, 16-27 April 1972 Printed 1972. Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image S-72-37001]. With NASA caption and 'A Kodak Paper' watermark on the reverse, numbered 'NASA S-72-37001' in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context Ken Mattingly's phenomenal deep space EVA, retrieving the lunar mission's visual legacy. Assisted by Charles Duke, visible in the open hatch of the Command Module Casper (foreground), Ken Mattingly ventures into the dark void to retrieve precious film canisters from the Mapping and Panoramic Cameras in the Service Module's Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) Bay—essential imagery that would be lost forever if not recovered before the Service Module's jettisoning prior to re-entry. This breathtaking moment, captured 173,000 nautical miles from Earth during the homeward journey, is a frame from motion picture film exposed by the Maurer camera. Mattingly wears John Young's red-striped lunar EVA helmet for additional sun protection. It remains one of the most striking depictions of an astronaut performing extravehicular activity in deep space. 'You open the hatch, and you go outside, and it's dark. I mean, there's Sun shining on the side of the spacecraft; you can tell that because you can see it—it's illuminated. [...] You look around, and you don't see anything. There's no stars out there. That's really strange. In fact, the only thing there is, is this platform I'm holding on to. That's all there is! Nothing else! Nothin'. I've never seen anything like it! You had to turn your body to see [the Earth and the Moon]. And you can, and there's a thing that is the size of [an orange], and that's one of them, and there's one over there, and it's a crescent, and it's not quite so big, but that's all there is! [...] That's the only time I ever felt what it means to be in space. There's nothing around. Absolutely nothing. No up, no down.' —Ken Mattingly (Chaikin, Voices, p. 122) Footnotes: Literature Apollo: through the eyes of the astronauts, pp. 114-115 For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing