Editing Apollo program (section)

====Mission cutbacks====
About the time of the first landing in 1969, it was decided to use an existing Saturn V to launch the Skylab orbital laboratory pre-built on the ground, replacing the original plan to construct it in orbit from several Saturn IB launches; this eliminated Apollo 20. NASA's yearly budget also began to shrink in light of the successful landing, and NASA also had to make funds available for the [[Space Shuttle design process|development]] of the upcoming [[Space Shuttle]]. By 1971, the decision was made to also cancel missions 18 and 19.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Where No Man Has Gone Before, Ch12-2|url=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4214/ch12-2.html|access-date=2023-02-12|website=www.hq.nasa.gov|archive-date=February 12, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230212183758/https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4214/ch12-2.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> The two unused Saturn Vs became museum exhibits at the [[John F. Kennedy Space Center]] on Merritt Island, Florida, [[Marshall Space Flight Center|George C. Marshall Space Center]] in [[Huntsville, Alabama|Huntsville]], Alabama, [[Michoud Assembly Facility]] in [[New Orleans]], Louisiana, and [[Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center]] in Houston, Texas.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/saturn_apollo/display.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051115064337/http://history.msfc.nasa.gov/saturn_apollo/display.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 15, 2005 |title=Three Saturn Vs on Display Teach Lessons in Space History |publisher=Marshall Space Flight Center History Office |first=Mike |last=Wright |access-date=July 19, 2016}}</ref>

The cutbacks forced mission planners to reassess the original planned landing sites in order to achieve the most effective geological sample and data collection from the remaining four missions. [[Apollo 15]] had been planned to be the last of the H series missions, but since there would be only two subsequent missions left, it was changed to the first of three J missions.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/apollo_18_20.html |last1=Williams |first1=David |website=NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive |title=Apollo 18 through 20 – The Cancelled Missions |access-date=June 11, 2016 |date=December 11, 2003}}</ref>

Apollo 13's Fra Mauro mission was reassigned to [[Apollo 14]], commanded in February 1971 by Mercury veteran [[Alan Shepard]], with [[Stuart Roosa]] and [[Edgar Mitchell]].<ref name=apollo14>{{cite web |url=https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo14.html#.V1xEp5ErJeU |title=Apollo 14 |website=NASA |access-date=June 11, 2016 |date=July 8, 2009}}</ref> This time the mission was successful. Shepard and Mitchell spent 33 hours and 31 minutes on the surface,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1971-008A |title=Apollo 14 Command and Service Module (CSM) |website=NASA Space Science Data Coordinated Archive |access-date=June 11, 2016}}</ref> and completed two EVAs totalling 9{{nbsp}}hours 24 minutes, which was a record for the longest EVA by a lunar crew at the time.<ref name=apollo14/>

In August 1971, just after conclusion of the Apollo 15 mission, President [[Richard Nixon]] proposed canceling the two remaining lunar landing missions, Apollo 16 and 17. [[Office of Management and Budget]] Deputy Director [[Caspar Weinberger]] was opposed to this, and persuaded Nixon to keep the remaining missions.<ref>"MEMORANDUM FOR THE PRESIDENT" by Caspar Weinberger (via George Shultz), Aug 12, 1971, Page32(of 39) [http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-885j-aircraft-systems-engineering-fall-2005/video-lectures/logsdn_lec_notes.pdf]</ref>