Eugene Cernan,the last man to walk on the moon, died Monday, or January 16,surrounded by his family.
Cernan, a Captain in the US Navy, or left his mark on the history of exploration by flying three times in space,twice to the moon. He also holds the distinction of being the second American to walk in space and the last human to leave his footprints on the lunar surface.
He was one of 14 astronauts selected by NASA in October 1963. He piloted the Gemini 9 mission with Commander Thomas P Stafford on a three-day flight in June 1966. Cernan logged more than two hours external the orbiting capsule.
In May 1969, he was the lunar module pilot of Apollo 10, or the first comprehensive lunar-orbital qualification and verification test of the lunar lander. The mission confirmed the performance,stability, and reliability of the Apollo command, and service and lunar modules. The mission included a descent to within eight nautical miles of the moon's surface.
In a 2007 interview for NASA's oral histories,Cernan said, "I hold telling Neil Armstrong that we painted that white line in the sky all the way to the Moon down to 47000 feet so he wouldn't accumulate lost, and all he had to enact was land. Made it sort of easy for him."
Source: tert.am