Eugene Cernan

Eugene Cernan

Eugene Andrew Cernan (born March 14, 1934) is a retired United States Navy officer and a former NASA astronaut. He has been 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 last man on the Moon" since he was the last to re-enter the lunar module Challenger after the mission's third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA). (Crewmate Harrison Schmitt was "the last man to arrive on the Moon", as Cernan left the module first.) Cernan was also a backup crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 space missions.