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Eugene Cernan, last man to walk on the moon dies at 82: NASA

Xinhua, January 17, 2017 Adjust font size:

Eugene A. Cernan, a retired NASA astronaut who was the last man to set foot on the moon, died aged 82, U.S. space agency NASA confirmed on Monday.

"We are saddened by the loss of retired NASA astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon," NASA said in a tweet.

Details of his death have not been released, but NASA is publicly mourning his loss.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, on March 14, 1934, Eugene Cernan, better known as Gene, was the spacecraft commander for Apollo 17 , the last scheduled manned mission to the moon for the United States.

This last mission to the moon in 1972 established several firsts for manned spaceflight including: 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 lbs.); and longest time in lunar orbit (147 hours 48 minutes).

When Cernan stepped out from lunar module "Challenger" he became the 11th person to walk on the moon, and the last man on the moon' when he was the final astronaut to re-enter the Apollo Lunar Module.

"This is Gene, and I'm on the surface; and, as I take man's last step from the surface, back home for some time to come -- but we believe not too long into the future -- I'd like to just (say) what I believe history will record: that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow," Cernan told Mission Control as he reentered the Challenger lunar module. Endit