From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Eugene Andrew
"
Gene
"
Cernan
(
; March 14, 1934 – January 16,
2017
), (
CAPT
,
USN
, Ret.), was an
American
naval officer
and
Naval Aviator
,
electrical engineer
,
aeronautical engineer
,
fighter pilot
, and
NASA
astronaut
.
[1]
Cernan was born in
Chicago
,
Illinois
. He was raised in
Bellwood
, Illinois and in
Maywood
, Illinois. He studied at
Purdue University
and at the
Naval Postgraduate School
.
He traveled into space three times: as Pilot of
Gemini 9A
in June 1966, as Lunar Module Pilot of
Apollo 10
in May 1969, and as Commander of
Apollo 17
in December 1972, the final Apollo lunar landing.
On Apollo 17, Cernan became the
eleventh person to walk
on the
Moon
and the most recent man to walk on the Moon since he was the last to re-enter the
Lunar Module
Challenger
after the mission's third and final mission. Cernan was also a backup crew member for the
Gemini 12
,
Apollo 7
and
Apollo 14
space missions.
Cernan died on January 16, 2017 at a hospital in
Houston
,
Texas
, aged 82.
[2]