Wednesday, January 18, 2017
Eugene Cernan
, former
NASA
astronaut and the most recent human to walk on the
Moon
, died on Monday aged 82, according to a NASA statement. Cernan, who commanded the
Apollo 17
mission to the Moon in 1972, was in
Houston
,
Texas
, at the time of his death.
Cernan, who was born in
Chicago
,
Illinois
, on March 14, 1934, earned engineering degrees from
Purdue University
in 1956 and the
Naval Postgraduate School
in 1963. He was an aviator in the
United States Navy
and logged more than 200 landings on aircraft carriers before becoming an astronaut in 1963. He flew in space for the first time aboard
Gemini 9
in 1966. In 1969 Cernan flew aboard
Apollo 10
, a flight to the Moon that rehearsed a descent but purposefully did not land in preparation for the
Apollo 11
landing. Cernan's final flight into space was as commander of
Apollo 17
, the final lunar landing mission of the
Apollo program
, in which he spent three days exploring the lunar surface along with
Harrison Schmitt
.
Following Apollo 17, Cernan worked on the
Apollo-Soyuz
project before retiring from NASA and the Navy in 1976. In his later years he became an executive and consultant, wrote an autobiography, and advocated for returning to the Moon along with
Neil Armstrong
, the first human to walk on the Moon, who died in 2012.
"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," NASA Administrator
Charles Bolden
said in a statement.
Related news
Sources
- Emanuella Grinberg. "
Eugene Cernan, last man on the moon, dies
" —
CNN
, January 17, 2017
- Michael Graczyk and Seth Borenstein (
AP
). "
Gene Cernan, Last Astronaut to Walk on the Moon, Dies at 82
" —
ABC News (US)
, January 16, 2017
- "
Remembering Gene Cernan
" —
NASA
, January 16, 2017
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