Apollo 16 lunar landing site. US astronaut John W. Young working on the lunar rover at the Apollo 16 Descartes Highlands landing site. The lunar module Orion is at left. Apollo 16 was the fifth Apollo mission to land on the Moon. It launched on 16 April 1972 and landed on the Moon's surface on 21 April. Young, and fellow astronaut Charles Duke, spent 71 hours on the lunar surface testing the lunar rover and collecting Moon rock samples. Courtesy of NASA.