A return after ten years — and a module that refused to dock

Commander Alan Shepard, the first American in space (1961), waited ten years for his second flight — grounded for years by an inner-ear disorder. At 47 he became the oldest American to fly in space, and later the oldest person to stand on the Moon.

Apollo 14 launched on 31 January 1971 at 21:03:02 UTC from Pad 39A — 40 minutes later than planned because of weather (the first such delay in the Apollo program). The mission was headed for the Fra Mauro highlands, the original target of the aborted Apollo 13.

After the burn toward the Moon, pilot Roosa tried to dock the command module Kitty Hawk with the lunar module Antares — but the mechanism refused to latch, despite his having rehearsed the maneuver many times. After several failed attempts and consultation with Mission Control, docking finally succeeded with the probe retracted. Had it failed completely, the Moon landing would not have happened, and the Apollo program could have suffered a second consecutive failure after Apollo 13.