Gene Cernan

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…