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ϳԹOnline Apollo moon mission Buggy Pacific International Space Cen Executive Director Rob Kelso vi Big Island Hawaii lunar landscape train training photos surface unpublished released astronauts roving vehicle 1971 Apollo 17
Apollo 17 astronauts take the Moon Buggy out for a spin. (Photo: NASA/Pacific Space Center)

Apollo Mission Photos Surface

From treks across Hawaii's Big Island

Published:  Updated: 
Matthew Zampa
ϳԹOnline Apollo moon mission Buggy Pacific International Space Cen Executive Director Rob Kelso vi Big Island Hawaii lunar landscape train training photos surface unpublished released astronauts roving vehicle 1971 Apollo 17
(Photo: NASA/Pacific Space Center)

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Houston: The photographs have surfaced.

While rummaging around Johnson Space Center,  executive director Rob Kelso recently came across  of astronauts trekking across Apollo Valley on Hawaii’s Big Island in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Similar to the surface of the moon, the island’s volcanic, rocky landscape was ideal for testing moon buggies and training astronauts.

Yesterday, NASA’s Pacific Space Center released these photos from Apollo training missions 13, 15, and 17. Among them:

ϳԹOnline Apollo moon Pacific International Space Cen Executive Director Rob Kelso vi Big Island Hawaii lunar landscape train training photos surface unpublished released astronauts packs 1970 soil geological Apollo 15
| (NASA/Pacific Space Center)

Astronauts practiced geological-sample runs on the crater-ridden Hawaiian surface.

ϳԹOnline Apollo mission moon Pacific International Space Cen Executive Director Rob Kelso vi Big Island Hawaii lunar landscape train training photos surface unpublished released astronauts 1970 Apollo 13 Commander James A. Lovell
| (NASA/Pacific Space Center)

Apollo 13 Commander James A. Lovell Jr. 

ϳԹOnline Apollo moon mission Pacific International Space Cen Executive Director Rob Kelso vi Big Island Hawaii lunar landscape train training photos surface unpublished released astronauts 1970 Apollo 15 crew trek Apollo Valley
| (NASA/Pacific Space Center)
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Lead Photo: NASA/Pacific Space Center

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