Apollo Astronauts Who Walked On The Moon
Twelve men have walked on the Moon – all American – eight of whom are still alive. All of the landings took place between July 1969 and December 1972 as part of the Apollo program.
| Name | Born | Died | Age at first step |
Mission | Lunar EVA dates | Service | |
| 01. | Neil Armstrong | (1930-08-05)August 5, 1930 | August 25, 2012(2012-08-25) (aged 82) | 38y 11m 15d | Apollo 11 | July 21, 1969 | NASA |
| 02. | Buzz Aldrin | (1930-01-20) January 20, 1930 (age 82) | 39y 6m 0d | Air Force | |||
| 03. | Pete Conrad | (1930-06-02)June 2, 1930 | July 8, 1999(1999-07-08) (aged 69) | 39y 5m 17d | Apollo 12 | November 19–20, 1969 | Navy |
| 04. | Alan Bean | (1932-03-15) March 15, 1932 (age 80) | 37y 8m 4d | Navy | |||
| 05. | Alan Shepard | (1923-11-18)November 18, 1923 | July 21, 1998(1998-07-21) (aged 74) | 47y 2m 18d | Apollo 14 | February 5–6, 1971 | Navy |
| 06. | Edgar Mitchell | (1930-09-17) September 17, 1930 (age 82) | 40y 4m 19d | Navy | |||
| 07. | David Scott | (1932-06-06) June 6, 1932 (age 80) | 39y 1m 25d | Apollo 15 | July 31 – August 2, 1971 | Air Force | |
| 08. | James Irwin | (1930-03-17)March 17, 1930 | August 8, 1991(1991-08-08) (aged 61) | 41y 4m 14d | Air Force | ||
| 09. | John W. Young | (1930-09-24) September 24, 1930 (age 82) | 41y 6m 28d | Apollo 16 | April 21–23, 1972 | Navy | |
| 10. | Charles Duke | (1935-10-03) October 3, 1935 (age 77) | 36y 6m 18d | Air Force | |||
| 11. | Eugene Cernan | (1934-03-14) March 14, 1934 (age 78) | 38y 9m 7d | Apollo 17 | December 11–14, 1972 | Navy | |
| 12. | Harrison Schmitt | (1935-07-03) July 3, 1935 (age 77) | 37y 5m 8d | NASA |
Regarding "the last man to walk on the Moon", Schmitt is the last person to arrive (as Cernan got out of the Apollo Lunar Module first), but Cernan is the last person to leave (after final EVA (extra-vehicular activity), Schmitt went inside the module first). Duke was the youngest, at age 36 (+6mo); Shepard was the oldest, at age 47 (+2mo).
James A. Lovell, John W. Young and Eugene Cernan are the only three astronauts to fly more than one lunar mission (two each). Of these three, only Lovell did not walk on the lunar surface. Lovell and Fred Haise were prevented from walking on the Moon by the malfunction on Apollo 13 that resulted in the mission being aborted. Haise was scheduled to walk on the Moon as commander of Apollo 19 prior to that mission’s cancellation on September 2, 1970.
Joe Engle had also trained to explore the Moon with Cernan as the backup crew for Apollo 14, but Engle was later replaced by geologist Harrison Schmitt when the primary crew for Apollo 17 was selected. Schmitt had been crewed with Dick Gordon in anticipation for Apollo 18. When Apollo 18 was canceled, Schmitt bumped Engle, leaving Gordon as the last Apollo astronaut who had trained extensively for lunar exploration without ever getting a chance to fly a lunar landing.
Read more about this topic: List Of Apollo Astronauts
Famous quotes containing the words apollo, astronauts, walked and/or moon:
““Epic poem,—ten thousand lines—revolution of July—composed it on the spot—Mars by day, Apollo by night,—bang the field-piece, twang the lyre.””
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“Just opening up the door, having this ordinary person fly, says a lot for the future. You can always equate astronauts with explorers who were subsidized. Now you are getting someone going just to observe. And then you’ll have the settlers.”
—Christa McAuliffe (1948–1986)
“I walked on the banks of the tincan banana dock and sat down under the huge shade of a Southern Pacific locomotive to look at the sunset over the box house hills and cry.”
—Allen Ginsberg (b. 1926)
“Shake off your heavy trance,
and leap into a dance,
Such as no mortals use to tread,
fit only for Apollo
To play to, for the Moon to lead,
And all the Stars to follow.”
—Francis Beaumont (1584–1616)