In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, the Apollo 16 Saturn V space vehicle carrying astronauts John W. Young, Thomas K. Mattingly II, and Charles M. Duke, Jr., lifted off to the Moon at 12:54 p.m. EST April 16, 1972, from the Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A.
Each weekday, SPACE.com looks back at the history of spaceflight through photos (archive).