Fact sheet
The texture of 63535 and its companions 63536 and 63537 could be termed “basaltic”; there are numerous small relic clasts that are incorporated in the matrix. Thus it is an impact melt rock. Our thin section is very thick and so only a reflected light view is presented. This shows many metallic iron droplets associated with with minor troilite. Schreibersite forms rounded inclusions in the metallic iron.
The sample weighed 6.8 grams before analysis and has not been dated.
Further details of this and other Apollo samples are here: http://curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/
The Apollo 16 landing site was in the hilly region around Descartes crater in the lunar highlands. The landing spot was chosen to allow the astronauts to gather geologically older lunar material (Descartes Formation and the Cayley Formation) than the samples obtained in the first four landings, which were in or near lunar maria.
The mission lasted 11.1 days, with a stay on the lunar surface of 71 hours. The crew were on the lunar surface for 20.2 hours during which they traversed approximately 27 kilometers and collected approximately 96 kilograms of samples.
Apollo 16 was launched on 16 April 1972.