Apollo 17 Captain Eugene Cernan passed away on Monday, Jan. 17 in Houston at the age of 82. Cernan was the commander of the last lunar-landing mission of NASA. He was also the last human to leave his footprint on the surface of the moon in 1972.
Eugene Cernan left his mark on the history of space exploration with a record of three successful spaceflights. He is also the second American to set foot on the moon and the last human to ever walk on the moon three years after Neil Armstrong. No one has ever walked to the moon 44 years since and there are also no planned lunar landing missions.
His first mission was the Gemini 9A, a three-day flight in June 1996. He was selected as the backup pilot but became the prime pilot with Thomas Stafford after the members of the prime crew were killed in a crash. They were able to perform a simulation that was used in Apollo 10.
Apollo 17 established new records in spaceflight. It is the longest lunar landing flight with the duration of 301 hours, 51 minutes. It also stayed the longest in the lunar surface (22 hours, 6 minutes) and the lunar orbit (147 hours, 48 minutes) and collected the largest lunar sample.
"Truly, America has lost a patriot and pioneer who helped shape our country's bold ambitions to do things that humankind had never before achieved." Charles Bolden, NASA administrator said. His family said that even at his old age, Cernan shared his desire to see the continued human space explorations and encourage the younger generation to not let him remain the last man to step on the moon.
After his NASA career, Eugene Cernan ventured into private business. He also appeared in talk shows including ABC morning show, "Good Morning America," according to New York Times. He published his memoir "The Last Man on the Moon" with coauthor Donald A. Davis and appeared in a documentary with the same title in 2016.
