Editing 1972 in science (section)

==Astronomy and space exploration==
* January 5 – [[President of the United States]] [[Richard Nixon]] orders the development of a [[Space Shuttle]] program.
* February 4 – [[Mariner 9]] sends pictures from Mars.
* February 21 – The [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] uncrewed [[spacecraft]] [[Luna 20]] lands on the [[Moon]].
* March 2 – Launch of [[Pioneer 10]] spacecraft.
* April 16 – [[Apollo 16]] launched.
* June 30 – The [[International Time Bureau]] adds the first [[leap second]] to [[Coordinated Universal Time]] (UTC).
* July 23 – The [[United States]] launches [[Landsat 1]], the first Earth-resources [[satellite]].
* December 7 – [[Apollo 17]] launched with three astronauts and [[Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum, and Phooey|five mice]],  and ''[[The Blue Marble]]'' photograph of the [[Earth]] is taken.
* December 11 – NASA astronauts [[Eugene Cernan]] and [[Harrison Schmitt]] land on the Moon and begin a three-day exploration.