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ML_cernan_bkp.htm
Capt. Gene Cernan
Last Man On The Moon Recalls View From 'God's Front Porch'
By Bethanne Kelly Patrick
Military.com Columnist
Retired Navy Capt. Gene Cernan is the last man to leave his footprints on the moon -- "so far," the former astronaut has said. "It's been far too many years since I've been the last man on the moon." As commander of Apollo 17, NASA's final manned moon mission, Cernan took his last steps lunar steps on Dec. 13, 1972.
Just seven years after he graduated from Purdue University and entered the Navy, Cernan became one of 14 astronauts selected by NASA. He served on two earlier missions, Gemini IX-A and Apollo 10. It was during the latter that he first saw what one of his fellow astronauts called the "magnificent desolation" of the lunar sphere.
During Gemini IX, Cernan flew as pilot under Cmdr. Tom Stafford's command. Cernan spent a record two hours, nine minutes in space, but had difficulties with the rocket-powered astronaut maneuver unit (AMU) he was supposed to put on. Although he orbited the moon as a member of the Apollo 10 crew, it was not until the 1972 Apollo 17 mission that Cernan would get another chance to go "outside."
In the course of three seven-hour expeditions to the moon's surface, Cernan and his team covered more miles than any crew -- 19. "You can go to the highest mountain on earth or the deepest ocean, but you're still on earth," Cernan recently told a reporter. On the moon, however, he says "... I was always turning around and stealing another glance over my shoulder ... It was like sitting on God's front porch."
The view from that porch, Cernan recalls, was "just awe-inspiring ... a whole Earth, where you could look across oceans and continents in a single glance." His "indelibly etched" memory of that Earth reminds him that his status as the last man on the moon is a "dubious honor ... I would have thought we'd been back by now."
In 1976, Cernan retired after 20 years in the Navy and began working in private industry. In 1981, he started The Cernan Corporation to pursue consulting in aerospace and energy fields. Part of his current work is championing Space Center Houston. "We're just moving slower than I thought," Cernan says. "These kids today, if we give them a chance, it will happen. Nothing is impossible anymore." |
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