Eugene Cernan obit

Apollo Astronaut Eugene Cernan, Last Man to Walk on the Moon, Dies at 82

He was not on the list.

U.S. astronaut Gene Cernan, who as the commander of the final Apollo lunar landing mission in 1972 became known as the "last man on the moon," died on Monday (Jan. 16). He was 82.

NASA confirmed Cernan's death on its website and social media channels, noting he was surrounded by his family at the time he died. The cause of death was not stated, but he was known to have been ill in recent months.

"We are saddened by the loss of retired NASA astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon," NASA wrote. "A captain in the U.S. Navy, [he] left his mark on the history of exploration by flying three times in space, twice to the moon." [In Pictures: Astronaut Eugene Cernan Remembered]

Cernan was chosen with NASA's third group of astronauts in 1963. 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.

As the pilot of NASA's seventh Gemini Flight — a three-day mission in Earth orbit that rendezvoused but failed to dock with an unmanned target vehicle, Cernan became only the second American astronaut to go out on an extra-vehicular activity (EVA). The two-hour spacewalk though, nearly cost him his life.

"So, you know about that spacewalk from hell," remarked Cernan in a 2007 NASA interview, referring to his Gemini 9 EVA on June 5, 1966.

Finding it difficult to bend wearing a pressurized spacesuit, Cernan struggled to maneuver outside the two-seat space capsule, tumbling uncontrollably while trailing an umbilical. Lacking the handrails that would become common on later spacecraft, Cernan slowly climbed to the aft of the Gemini to don and test the Astronaut Maneuvering Unit (AMU), an early predecessor to the jetpacks astronauts demonstrated in the years to come.

Cernan's AMU flight, however, was not to be. The cooling system for his spacesuit overheated, causing his helmet's faceplate to fog. With no way to wipe it clear, he could not see. Exhausted and practically blind, Cernan managed to find his way back to his seat and, with Stafford's help, re-entered the spacecraft.

After orbiting the Earth 47 times during the course of their three days in space, Cernan and Stafford splashed down safely to be recovered by the USS Wasp aircraft carrier on June 6, 1966.