Serving as the Lunar Module Pilot in the three-man crew for the "dress rehearsal" mission, Cernan went through all the steps for a manned mission to the surface of the moon short of actually landing. Cernan first flew in space in June 1966 on the Gemini 9A mission. He earned his bachelor of science in electrical engineering from Purdue University in Indiana in 1956 and a master of science in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in California in 1963.Commissioned in the Navy through the ROTC program at Purdue, he entered flight training upon graduation. Family, friends and fellow Apollo astronauts mourned the death of Gene Cernan, the last man on the moon, at his funeral service Jan. 24. After jettisoning the descent stage and igniting the ascent engine to return to the command module "Charlie Brown," the lunar module unexpectedly began to turn and roll, a situation that could have led to the Cernan and Stafford crashing to the moon. His first spaceflight, Gemini 9A, came three years later, after he and Thomas Stafford replaced Elliot See and Charles Bassett in the wake of a jet crash that claimed the original crew members' lives. Astronaut Eugene "Gene" Cernan, Commander of Apollo 17 and the most recent person to stand on the surface of the moon, has died at age 82. Stationed at Miramar, California, Cernan flew FJ-4 Fury and A-4 Skyhawk jets as part of Attack Squadrons 126 and 112. Cernan's experiences on Gemini 9 prepared him for his next spaceflight aboard Apollo 10. Last man on the moon (Apollo 17). "Made it sort of easy for him. Cernan retired from the Navy having logged more than 5,000 hours flying time, including 4,800 hours in jets and over 200 carrier landings.Before retiring from NASA in 1976, Cernan assisted in the planning for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP), serving as the senior negotiator in direct discussion with the former Soviet Union in support of the historic joint mission.Initially joining Coral Petroleum of Houston as an executive vice president, Cernan established his own company, The Cernan Corporation, in 1981 to provide consulting services for energy, aerospace and other related industries. We may earn commission if you buy from a link. Cernan even hit 11.2 mph in the Lunar Rover, the unofficial lunar land speed record. The Commander of Apollo 17 left the last bootprints on the moon. Serving as a Naval Aviator for 13 years, Capt. During the 3-day flight, Cernan became the second American to go on a spacewalk, and the third person to ever perform extravehicular activity (EVA), staying outside of the spacecraft in his suit for 2 hours and 7 minutes.
During the flight, Cernan, along with Thomas P. Stafford and John W. Young, traveled farther from the Earth than any other person has before or since, and Apollo 10 also holds the record for highest speed attained by a crewed vehicle, clocking in at 24,791 mph on the return flight. "The three astronauts splashed down on Dec. 19, 1972, for a mission duration of 12 days, 13 hours and 51 minutes.In total, Cernan logged 23 days, 14 hours and 15 minutes in space, including more than 24 hours on one spacewalk and three moonwalks.Eugene Andrew "Gene" Cernan was born in Chicago, Ill., on March 14, 1934. As lunar module pilot aboard "I keep telling Neil Armstrong that we painted that white line in the sky all the way to the moon down to 47,000 feet so he would not get lost, and all he had to do was land," Cernan said in his NASA oral history. Cernan was the backup pilot for Gemini 9, along with backup command pilot Thomas P. Stafford, but they became the mission's primary astronauts when the original crew, command pilot Elliot See and pilot Charles Bassett, died in a crash on February 28, 1966 in a NASA T-38 jet trainer. They performed three moonwalks, totaling about 22 hours, the first of which alone was more than three times longer than Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent walking the surface of the moon.