Former astronaut Gene Cernan has died at the age of 82 . He holds the distinction of being the most recent man to walk on the Moon and his legacy as one of humanity ’s sterling IE will live on .
Cernanreportedlypassed aside at a hospital in Houston , Texas , after ongoing health issuing .
NASAtweetedits condolences this afternoon with a content that reads , “ We are saddened by the loss of retired NASA astronaut Gene Cernan , the last man to walk on the synodic month . ”
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden also shareda noteabout Cernan ’s contribution :
As a crew appendage of both the Apollo 10 and 17 missions , he was one of two men to have fly double to the moon . He commanded Apollo 17 and set records that still stand for longest manned lunar landing place flight , long lunar surface extravehicular activities , bombastic lunar sample paying back , and longest clock time in lunar scope .
Gene ’s footprints stay on the moonlight , and his achievements are imprinted in our substance and memories . His driving force to explore and do great things for his rural area is summarise up in his own Christian Bible :
‘ We sincerely are in an historic period of challenge . With that challenge comes opportunity . The sky is no longer the bound . The word impossible no longer belongs in our vocabulary . We have proved that we can do whatever we have the firmness to do . The limitation to our stretch is our own complacency . ’
Cernan came to NASA from the Navy in October of 1963 . As a pilot , he logged over 5,000 hours of flight of steps sentence and landed on aircraft toter 200 times . He was select in the third group of NASA astronaut and was serving as a backup pilot for Gemini 9 when the prime crew died in the crash of NASAT-38A“901″ on February 28 , 1966 . After a jolty but successful mission on Gemini 9 , he later fly on Apollo 10 and Apollo 17 . The unprecedented nature of his calling mean that he holds numerous records and firsts including the high pep pill attained by any manned vehicle ( 24,791 mph ) and the unofficial lunar state pep pill criminal record ( 18.0 klick / h ) .
After his career at NASA , Cernan continued to be a public material body , source , television personality and advocate for the sciences .
Though he may be the most recent , hopefully he wo n’t be the last valet to ill-use foot on the Moon . BothRussiaandChinahave plans to send their first manned missionary station to the lunar surface .
Man ’s last tidings verbalize from the Moon were spoken by Cernan :
Bob , this is cistron , and I ’m on the control surface ; and , as I take man ’s last step from the surface , back home for some clip to add up – but we believe not too long into the futurity – I ’d care to just ( say ) what I believe history will immortalise : that America ’s challenge of today has work man ’s fate of tomorrow . And , as we leave the Moon at Taurus – Littrow , we give as we came and , God willing , as we shall return , with peace and hope for all mankind . Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17 .
NASA
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