Today in History - December 19, 1972 - Apollo 17, last of Apollo Moon landing series, returns to Earth. It was the sixth and last Apollo mission in which humans walked on the lunar surface.

Also on this date in 1958, the first radio message was broadcast from space from the U.S. launched Explorer-1. Later that year, the U.S. SCORE spacecraft became the first communication satellite in Earth orbit. It was a one-way communication system with a transmitter that broadcast to Earth a pre-recorded message, taped on the ground before launch by President Dwight D. Eisenhower - “To all mankind, America’s wish for Peace on Earth and Good Will to Men Everywhere”.

For more information, see the Engineering Pathway;s resources on the Apollo mission and space exploration, communications satellites or GPS and geomatics systems. For related educational resources, visit the Aerospace Engineering Education, Electrical Engineering Education , or Surveying and Geomatics Engineering Education disciplinary communities.