The last man on the moon

Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon has passed away at age 82, as a former naval aviator and aeronautical engineer, Cernan was a space pioneer with three missions to space in a thirteen year NASA career.

Cernan's first mission to space was on Gemini 9 in 1966 with Thomas Stafford after the original crew were killed in a jet crash. As back-up crew, Cernan was the second American astronaut to undertake a spacewalk. 

On a trip to NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, I was lucky enough to view the Mercury and Gemini capsules and you would have to seriously respect these pilots from this era, this would not be a flying experience to forget. This was serious risk they were undertaking, these spacecraft would probably not meet today's safety standards.

Launched on the 18th of May 1969, Thomas Stafford, John Young and Eugine Cernan orbited the moon on the Apollo 10 mission with Eugine Cernan acting as the Lunar Module Pilot. This was the trial run for Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's first manned lunar landing on Apollo 11 on the 20th of July 1969. 

The Apollo 17 mission with Cernan as the Mission Commander landed on the Taurus-Littrow valley on December 1972 spending over 22 hours on the moon's surface with Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt. As the Apollo 18 mission was cancelled, Eugine Cernan is credited with being the last man to walk on the moon. 

It is incredible that in 2017, no space agency currently has the capability to get a human to the moon's surface and return them safely to Earth. Eugene Cernan not only lived through an incredible period of history - Eugine Cernan made history.