Eugene Cernan

Born: March 14, 1934, Chicago Died: Jan. 16, 2017, Houston

NASA experience: Cernan was one of 14 astronauts selected by NASA in October 1963. He occupied the pilot seat alongside command pilot Tom Stafford on the Gemini IX mission. During this three-day flight that began on June 3, 1966, the spacecraft achieved a circular orbit of 161 statute miles; the crew used three different techniques to effect rendezvous with the previously launched Augmented Target Docking Adapter; and Cernan, the second American to walk in space, logged 2 hours and 10 minutes outside the spacecraft in extravehicular activities. The flight ended after 72 hours and 20 minutes with a perfect re-entry and recovery. Cernan subsequently served as backup pilot for Gemini 12 and as backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 7. On his second space flight, he was lunar module pilot of Apollo 10, May 18-26, 1969, the first comprehensive lunar-orbital qualification and verification flight test of an

Apollo lunar module. Cernan’s next assignment was backup spacecraft commander for

Apollo 14. He made his third space flight as spacecraft commander of Apollo 17 — the last scheduled manned mission to the moon for the United States

— Dec. 6-19, 1972. This last mission to the moon established several new records for manned space flight that include: longest manned lunar landing flight (301 hours, 51 minutes); longest lunar surface extravehicular activities (22 hours, 6 minutes); largest lunar sample return (an estimated 115 kg / 249 pounds); and longest time in lunar orbit (147 hours, 48 minutes). Cernan logged 566 hours and 15 minutes in space, of which more than 73 hours were spent on the surface of the moon. Cernan was the second American to have walked in space, having spanned the circumference of the world twice in a little more than 2 1/2 hours. He was one of the two men to have flown to the moon on two occasions, and as commander of the last mission to the moon, Apollo 17, had the privilege and distinction of being the last man to have left his footprints on the surface of the moon.

Military experience: Received his commission through the Navy ROTC Program at Purdue University, Indiana. He entered flight training upon graduation. He was assigned to Attack Squadrons

26 and 112 at the Miramar, California, Naval Air Station, and subsequently attended the Naval Postgraduate School. He logged more than 5,000 hours’ flying time with more than 4,800 hours in jet aircraft and over 200 jet aircraft carrier landings.