Gene Andrew Cernan, more commonly referred to as just Gene Cernan, was born on March 14, 1934 in the city of Chicago, Illinois. As the commander of the Apollo 17 mission, which took place from December 7 to December 17, 1972, he holds the distinction of being the final human, as of writing, to step foot on the Moon.

Cernan's Footsteps to the Moon

In 1956, after graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from Purdue University, Cernan was commissioned into the United States Navy. During his time as a naval aviator, he was responsible for landing his aircraft on approximately 200 different carriers.

He attended the United States Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where he earned a master's degree in aeronautical engineering in 1963. This school is located in the state of California. Near the end of that year, he learned that he had been chosen to become one of the lucky 14 astronauts who would be part of the third group.

As a Captain in the United States Navy, Cernan made history by becoming the first person to orbit the Earth three times and the first to visit the moon twice. He was the last human to leave footprints on the Moon, and he was the second American to set foot in space.

The Explorations that Cernan Had on the Moon

In October 1963, NASA selected a group of 14 people, including Cernan, to become astronauts. During a three-day flight in June 1966, he and Commander Thomas P. Stafford piloted the Gemini 9 mission. In total, Cernan spent over two hours away from the spacecraft.

Cernan was the third human being to set foot in space, following the Russian Alexei Leonov and the American Ed White. He was also one of the original 12 men to set foot on the moon. On the 1966 Gemini 9 mission, Cernan spent two hours and seven minutes outside the spacecraft before returning inside due to helmet visor fogging caused by exertion. Cernan was unable to try out a new jetpack because the spacewalk was cut short. His memoir included a chapter titled "The Spacewalk From Hell" in which he detailed the terrifying experience.

Apollo 10 was the first mission to conduct a comprehensive qualification and verification test of the lunar lander in lunar orbit, and he was the lunar module pilot for that mission. This mission was carried out in the month of May in 1969. During the course of the mission, the Apollo command module, service module, and lunar module all carried out their duties as planned and demonstrated remarkable consistency and reliability. During the course of the mission, astronauts got as close as 8 lunar miles to the surface of the moon.

After stepping down from NASA in 1976, Gene Cernan went on to found Cernan Corp., a company that catered to the aerospace and energy industries by providing management and consulting services. He also held the position of executive vice president at Houston's Coral Petroleum Inc. In 2016, a film about his life titled "The Last Man on the Moon" was released in theaters.

Today, January 16, is his sixth death anniversary.