The Earth-Moon round trip: Saturn V rocket (Apollo 16) lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida; an almost entire view of the nearly full planet Earth from Apollo 16 spacecraft, April 16-27, 1972

Most of North America and Central America is clearly visible in this awesome sight of a nearly full Earth. The Earth is almost fully illuminated by the Sun. Across all of the Apollo missions, Apollo 17 was the only manned mission to photograph an entire view of the full planet Earth, the iconic "Blue Marble" photograph.

003:36:00 Public Affairs Officer (Mission control): This is Apollo Control, Houston, at 3 hours, 36 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We presently show Apollo 16 at a distance of 8,997 nautical miles [16,662 km] away from the Earth. Velocity now reading 18,818 feet [5,736 m] per second. Very little conversation with the crew at this time as they are in the process of removing the tunnel hatch and going through their check list prior to separation and ejection of the Lunar Module.