Gene Cernan

NASA astronaut, Naval aviator, aeronautical engineer, electrical engineer, fighter pilot, eleventh human to walk on the Moon (Apollo 10 and Apollo 17)

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Lived 1934–2017, aged 83United States

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Wikipedia
56 languages
Cross-language footprint
Era
1934–2017
Aged 83
Known for
Mission Control: The U…
2017

Summary

Updated 2026-06-12

The last human being to leave footprints on the Moon. Cernan commanded Apollo 17 in December 1972, and when he climbed back into the lunar module, he closed an era — no one has returned since.

Biography

About

Cernan came out of Purdue with an electrical engineering degree in the late fifties and went straight into Navy flight training, flying fighters before earning a graduate degree in aeronautical engineering. NASA picked him in 1963. His first trip off-world was Gemini 9A in June 1966; three years later he flew Apollo 10, the full dress rehearsal that swooped within miles of the lunar surface but didn't land. Then in December 1972 he got Apollo 17, the last mission of the programme. He walked the Moon for over twenty-two hours across three days — longer than anyone — and when he left, he knew he…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Gene Cernan

Gene Cernan

saidundated

I felt that I was literally standing on a plateau somewhere out there in space. A plateau that science and technology had allowed me to get to.

— In the Shadow of the Moon

Gene Cernan

saidundated

It's the last steps that are perhaps more memorable to me than that first step, because I'd been in this valley on the Moon, almost living in a paradox.

— NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

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