47 years have passed since man set foot on the Moon. NASA Captain Eugene Cernan was the third man to walk in space , one of three people who went to the Moon twice, and the last to leave a footprint on the lunar surface.
The last words the Apollo 17 commander spoke on the Moon in December 1972 represented everything the Apollo missions symbolized. “We are leaving as we came and, God willing, as we will return,” he said, “with peace and hope for all humanity.” “Today’s American challenge has shaped the destiny of the Man of tomorrow.”
This astronaut, who began his career at NASA in 1963 and made his first trip as part of the Gemini IX mission in 1966, was selected to carry out in December 1972 the work of commander for the Apollo 17 mission, the last mission. manned to the moon.
Cernan, who retired from the US space agency and the Navy in 1976, died on January 16, 2017 when he was 82 years old. Until his death, he was passionate about space exploration and hoped that the leaders of the United States would not let him remain the last man to walk on the Moon.
In his last conversation with NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Cernan spoke of his “persistent desire” to inspire America’s youth to study science, technology, engineering, and mathematics “and dare to dream and explore. ” NASA said.
A few weeks before Cernan’s death, his fellow astronaut John Glenn also left us in December 2016.
Today there are only four other living astronauts left to walk on the Moon: Buzz Aldrin (born January 1930), David Scott (born June 1932), Charles Duke (born October 1935), and Harrison Schmitt (born in July 1935). John W. Young and Alan L. Bean passed away in 2018 (January 5 and May 26, respectively).
How was that last trip to the Earth’s natural satellite? We review in these photographs how that great and last mission to the Moon was like.
Image Credit: NASA
