Apollo 14 moon landings. Astronauts Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell working at the Fra Mauro crater during the Apollo 14 moon landings. Apollo 14 launched on 31st January 1971 and landed on the moon on 5th February. It was the eighth manned space flight in the US Apollo program and the third manned mission to land on the Moon. During the two excursions on the surface over 100 pounds of moon rocks were collected and several surface experiments were carried out. Commander Alan Shepard famously hit two golf balls on the lunar surface with a make-shift club he had brought from Earth.