Last Astronaut to Walk on the Moon, Gene Cernan, Dies at 82
Astronaut Eugene "Gene" Cernan, Commander of Apollo 17 and the most recent person to stand on the surface of the moon, has died at age 82, as reported by Astronomy magazine. The cause of death is not immediately known, but NASA did report that Cernan passed away "surrounded by his family."
We are saddened by the loss of retired NASA astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon. https://t.co/Q9OSdRewI5 pic.twitter.com/gPdFTnXF2C
- NASA (@NASA) January 16, 2017
Gene Cernan led the final manned mission to the moon in 1972, but his contributions to aviation and space exploration span decades. A naval officer and aviator who accumulated over 5,000 flight hours, Cernan was recruited to NASA in 1963. He flew spaceflight missions during Project Gemini, when the technologies required for astronauts to fly to the moon and back were developed. He then flew to the moon twice, first to orbit as the Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 10, and then to land as the Commander of Apollo 17. He was the last to board the Lunar Module Challenger, leaving the moon's surface untouched by human boots since.
In 1958, Captain Eugene Cernan became a Naval Aviator at age 24. Stationed at Miramar, California, Cernan flew FJ-4 Fury and A-4 Skyhawk jets as part of Attack Squadrons 126 and 112. Upon completing his assignment, he returned to school, and in 1963 he received a Master's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School. That very year, Cernan became one of fourteen people selected for NASA's Astronaut Group 3, along with Buzz Aldrin. The two men were the first NASA astronauts selected with military fighter jet experience, rather than test pilot experience like the rest of Group 3.
Cernan first flew in space in June 1966 on the Gemini 9A mission. NASA's Gemini program, the second set of NASA manned spaceflight missions between Mercury and Apollo, had its share of malfunctions and complications. Cernan was the backup pilot for Gemini 9, along with backup command pilot Thomas P. Stafford, but they became the mission's primary astronauts when the original crew, command pilot Elliot See and pilot Charles Bassett, died in a crash on February 28, 1966 in a NASA T-38 trainer aircraft.
The Gemini 9 flight was intended to rendezvous and dock with another spacecraft, the Gemini-Agena Target Vehicle (GATV), but the Atlas rocket carrying the craft malfunctioned and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean. A replacement vehicle was launched for the crew to rendezvous with, but it failed to jettison a protective shroud on the docking adaptor, so Gemini 9 practiced the space rendezvous without docking. During the 3-day flight, Cernan became the second American to go on a spacewalk, and the third person to ever perform extravehicular activity (EVA), staying outside of the spacecraft in his suit for 2 hours and 7 minutes.
Cernan's experiences on Gemini 9 prepared him for his next spaceflight aboard Apollo 10. Serving as the Lunar Module Pilot in the three-man crew for the "dress rehearsal" mission, Cernan went through all the steps for a manned mission to the moon short of actually landing. During the flight, Cernan, along with Thomas P. Stafford and John W. Young, traveled farther from the Earth than any other person has before or since, and Apollo 10 also holds the record for highest speed attained by a manned vehicle, clocking in at 24,791 mph on the return flight.
In 2007, while being interviewed for NASA's oral histories series, Cernan said, "I keep telling Neil Armstrong that we painted that white line in the sky all the way to the moon down to 47,000 feet so he wouldn't get lost, and all he had to do was land. Made it sort of easy for him."
Gene Cernan finally got his chance to walk on the moon in December 1972, as Commander of Apollo 17. During the mission, Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison H. Schmitt spent more time on the moon than anyone before them, a total of just over three days. They performed three moonwalks, totaling about 22 hours, the first of which alone was more than three times longer than Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent walking the surface of the moon. The astronauts drove the Lunar Rover more than 22 miles over of the lunar surface, taking lunar samples and setting up science equiptment along the way. Cernan even hit 11.2 mph in the Lunar Rover, the unofficial lunar land speed record.
Just before Commander Gene Cernan reentered the Lunar Module during Apollo 17, he bid farewell to the moon:
I'm on the surface; and, as I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come-but we believe not too long into the future-I'd like to just [say] what I believe history will record. That America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. And, as we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17.
Cernan's exploits as a U.S. Navy pilot and a NASA astronaut are chronicled in his 1999 memoir, The Last Man on the Moon, as well as in the 2016 documentary of the same name.
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