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The Apollo 14 mission ended on February 9, 1971, with the splashdown of the Command Module Kitty Hawk in the Pacific Ocean. Astronauts Alan B. Shepard, Stuart A.

Roosa, and Edgar D. Mitchell were retrieved by the U.S.S. New Orleans and underwent quarantine procedures.

They were flown to American Samoa and then to Ellington Air Force Base in Houston. The crew spent 59 hours in a Mobile Quarantine Facility and conducted postflight debriefings. Apollo 14's successful recovery and examination of lunar samples led to NASA discontinuing the three-week postflight quarantine for future missions.