(From the Archives, April 21) Moon landing delayed

Houston, April 20: The Apollo-16 Command Ship failed to execute a proper engine burn to-day and Mission Control advised the lunar module, Orion, that it might have to delay or cancel its moon landing. “Anticipate a wave off for this one. Set up for the next one,” Ground Controllers told John Young and Charles Duke just 30 minutes before they were to steer Orion to a landing in the mountains of the moon. The astronauts had separated their lunar ship from the Commandship and were preparing to land. They had donned space suits and climbed aboard Orion to check out various systems. The problem, not previously announced by Mission Control, involved the Command Ship, Casper, which was being flown alone by Thomas Mattingly after the two ships separated. At the time of separation, the two ships were in orbits ranging from about 19 to 107 km above the surface. Then, Mattingly was to have fired the Command Ship engine to raise his orbit ranging from about 96 to 112 km high to conduct a series of experiments while Young and Duke were on the moon. The astronauts are in no danger, the Mission Control had reported.