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Gene Cernan, Last Man To Walk On The Moon, Dies At 82

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Another moonwalker has passed. Gene Cernan, the last man on the moon, died today in a Houston hospital. He was 82. Details were not readily available at press time, but reports say he was with relatives at the time of his passing.

Cernan's death leaves six moonwalkers, or half of the original dozen, still alive.

On Dec. 14, 1972, the Apollo 17 Commander stepped up from the lunar dust and into his Lunar Module, called Challenger, becoming the final person to walk on the moon. In less than four years, the Apollo moon visits were over; the only manned space exploration since has been shuttle and Soyuz flights to a few hundred miles above the Earth.

In a rare interview awhile back, Cernan recalled his lunar landing like it was yesterday.

Apollo 17's Gene Cernan on the moon. (Image via NASA)

Jim Clash: The first and last men on the moon are Purdue alumni, correct?

Gene Cernan: Yes. We met maybe once in college, but Neil [Armstrong] and I shared a NASA office before we flew. And we’d become pretty good friends. He had been hassled a bit for being less free with his personal life and the media. I’ve said this before, and you can put it in print: There are lots of people who could have been first on the moon. But nobody could have handled the aftereffects with more dignity than Neil.

JC: You flew three space missions, but on Apollo 17 you actually landed on the moon.

GC: Unless you do it, you haven’t done it. Having come close on Apollo 10, it was important to cover that last 47,000 feet to the surface. Once I finally stepped on the moon, no matter what was to come of the next three days -- or the rest of my life -- nobody could take those steps from me. People ask how long will they be there, and I say forever, however long forever is, like my daughter’s initials that I scribbled in the sand [TDC for Tracy Dawn Cernan].

JC: You're best known, of course, for your last step.

GC: The more nostalgic, perhaps, were those final steps. As I stepped on the ladder, I looked back at earth in all its splendor -- I call it sitting on God’s front porch, looking home -- then down at my last footprint and realized, “Hey, I’m not coming this way again.” It’s not like going to Grandma’s farm like I did as a kid and coming back next summer. I hesitated, asking what was the meaning of the last three days -- not just to me, but to all who would follow. I didn’t have an answer then, and I don’t now. How long did it take to realize the significance of Columbus’ voyage across the ocean? Certainly not 45 years. Maybe in another 45 we’ll realize Apollo’s significance to our future as a civilization.

JC: Any regrets about your time on the moon?

GS: I left my Hasselblad camera there, with the lens pointing up, the idea being someday someone would come back and find out how much deterioration solar cosmic radiation had on the glass. So going up the ladder, I never took a photo of my last footstep. How dumb. Wouldn’t it have been better to take the camera with me, get the shot, take the film pack off and then [for the weight restrictions] throw the camera away?

JC: Disappointed we haven't been back to the moon?

GC: Cernan: Very disappointed. When I returned home in 1972, I honestly believed it wasn’t the end, but the beginning. We’re not only going back to the moon but by the end of the century, we’ll be well on our way to Mars. We had three more Saturn V’s sitting there before they were put into a museum. And I was trying to be conservative. I figured, 28 years -- my God, how much margin do you need? We threw out a plum to those men and women who followed, many far more capable, and they reeled in a lemon. We said, “Here guys, pick it up and run with it, follow in our footsteps, we’ve proved we can do it.”