Astronauts in Idaho: How Craters of the Moon shaped the lunar landing

ARCO, Idaho (KIFI) – As Artemis II prepares to splash down in the Pacific Ocean Friday – achieving speeds of 25,000 miles per hour during re-entry – it’s time to look back on America’s previous successful lunar landings, and the Idaho connection that helped make them possible. 

With the eyes of the world glued to the Artemis Mission and its trip around the moon, Craters of the Moon National Monument has a historic role - serving as a training ground for astronauts here in eastern Idaho.

Apollo 14 enters Idaho's orbit

"Apollo is fundamental for us being able to reach for the stars," said Shannon Kobs Nawotniak, a NASA-funded Researcher and Idaho State University (ISU) Geosciences Department Chair. "Before Apollo, that was sort of an imaginary concept. The idea that we could actually send people to the moon – that was a fairy tale, and Apollo took that from fairy tale to reality.”

In the late 1960s, crews for the Apollo 14 mission arrived at Craters of the Moon, eager to learn from one of Earth’s most lunar-like lava landscapes.

“In 1969, that's when the four astronauts came out," said Craters of the Moon Chief of Interpretation and Education Michael Irving. "So August of 1969, they came out and did their training in geology here.”

The astronauts Alan Shepard, Joe Engle, Eugene Cernan, and Edgar Mitchell belonged to Apollo 14's primary and backup crews.

"These gentlemen had to be experts, more or less, in volcanic geology in order to help bring back the most valuable information that they could,” Irving said.  

But first, the astronauts, who were military pilots and not trained scientists, needed to learn more about geology.

At Craters of the Moon, the four explorers were taught how to identify valuable geologic specimens on their future space voyages.

“The Apollo missions were really about, could we actually bring people up and bring them down?" Kobs Nawotniak said. "There was science that was achieved; it was important, but it wasn't driven by science."

The astronauts also visited locations in Hawai’i and Iceland for their training.

Destination – The Moon

It was the golden age of space travel. 

“Alan Shepard was the first American and the second human to ever go to space," Irving said. "So he was then involved with a number of space flights and activities in between his first launch and there. But he was able to go up on Apollo 14."

Apollo 14 launched from Kennedy Space Center on January 31, 1971.

The astronauts' geology training at Craters of the Moon paid off.

Apollo 14 was the third manned space mission to land on the moon.  

Commander Shepard became the first man to golf on the moon.

He also collected a 19-pound moon rock named “Big Bertha.” Scientists later discovered it contained a 4-billion-year-old meteorite that had come from the Earth, making the discovery the oldest known Earth rock in the galaxy. 

In total, Shepherd and Mitchell brought home 95 pounds of moon rocks back to Earth.

Later in Apollo 17, the last man to walk on the moon, Eugene Cernan, also received his training at Craters of the Moon.

Cernan commanded the Apollo 17 mission. He and fellow astronaut Harrison Schmitt brought home 4.5-billion-year-old specimens formed deep in the Moon’s crust.

“It's the exact same material that is erupting here [in Idaho] as we have forming the moon," Kobs Nawotniak said. "So it gives us really, really fantastic comparisons.”

Researchers from NASA and Idaho State University continue to push the boundaries of space exploration right here on Earth.

“You can crawl through lava tubes here at Craters of the Moon. They're going to give you an experience just like the ones that we have up on the moon," Kobs Nawotniak said. "The scoria cones that we have here, we've actually got some features that are like that on the moon. We've got lava flow fields on the moon that look like the ones that we have here."

For future space explorers, a world as far away as the moon can sometimes land in your own backyard.

"If you want to be part of this Artemis mission, this Artemis expedition, Artemis future, you need to come to Craters of the Moon and experience Artemis and the moon right here in Idaho, because it is an unparalleled resource," Kobs Nawotniak said.