1978 NASA Lithograph "Cernan Salutes Flag at Apollo 17 Landing Site"

1978 NASA Lithograph "Cernan Salutes Flag at Apollo 17 Landing Site" is a vintage Lithographs / Prints artifact by NASA / U.S. Government Printing Office from 1978, preserved in The Record Institute Ephemera Archive.

Category: Lithographs / Prints

Brand: NASA / U.S. Government Printing Office

Year: 1978

Rarity Class: C

Last updated: October 27, 2026

Captured by Scientist-Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during the final Apollo lunar mission, this striking image of Commander Eugene Cernan saluting the American flag serves as a quintessential visual record of the twentieth-century space race. Printed in 1978 by the U.S. Government Printing Office, this official NASA lithograph preserves the stark, high-contrast beauty of the Taurus-Littrow landing site for public distribution and institutional memory.

Quick Read

Mission: Apollo 17 (December 1972), the final lunar landing of the Apollo program. Subjects: Commander Eugene A. Cernan saluting the U.S. flag; the Lunar Roving Vehicle; the South Massif mountain. Photographer: Scientist-Astronaut Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt (Lunar Module Pilot). Publisher: U.S. Government Printing Office, printed in 1978 (six years post-mission). Authenticity Marker: The image features visible Hasselblad reseau marks (crosshairs), used by NASA for photogrammetry and spatial scaling.

Summary

Captured by Scientist-Astronaut Harrison Schmitt during the final Apollo lunar mission, this striking image of Commander Eugene Cernan saluting the American flag serves as a quintessential visual record of the twentieth-century space race. Printed in 1978 by the U.S. Government Printing Office, this official NASA lithograph preserves the stark, high-contrast beauty of the Taurus-Littrow landing site for public distribution and institutional memory.

Official NASA color lithograph showing astronaut Eugene Cernan saluting the American flag on the lunar surface. Cernan wears a bulky white extravehicular mobility unit (spacesuit) and stands in the center right, holding the bottom corner of the flag. The Lunar Roving Vehicle is parked in the background to the left. The lunar surface is dusty and cratered, leading to a smooth, rounded mountain—the South Massif—against the pitch-black sky of space. Photographic crosshairs (reseau marks) are visible across the image. The front features a white lower margin with the caption "CERNAN SALUTES FLAG AT APOLLO 17 LANDING SITE". The reverse side contains a monochrome NASA logo, descriptive text about the Apollo 17 EVA, the code "MSCL—101", and the imprint "☆ U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1978 773-670".