The launch happened on 7 December 1972, the final manned lunar landing mission. Gethings, now 70, recalled it ahead of a screening of a documentary about his experience. "As it launched there was this incredible adrenaline and a shockwave that rattled every bone in your body," he said. "It is the stuff that you dream about."
Gethings grew up in Frenchwood in Preston, and the Cold War Space Race shaped him. Sci-fi, The Thunderbirds and televised Nasa missions kept space on his mind. Seeing the Milky Way at 10 was his "trigger moment" for a lifelong interest in astronomy.
He started an astronomy club at the former St John Fisher's School, putting on talks at his school and others and running public exhibitions. The Lancashire Evening Post photographed those exhibitions. A few months later, a letter arrived from the United States Embassy in London about a "very special project" tied to Apollo 17. Gethings was one of 16 UK students invited to interview, and Nasa would select just one for an all-expenses paid, 19-day trip to the launch. He heard nothing for a couple of weeks.