Eugene Cernan left the Moon with a distinction he hoped would one day belong to someone else.
As commander of Apollo 17, he became the last human to walk on the lunar surface in December 1972. More than five decades later, no other human has returned to walk there.
Cernan visited the Moon twice—first aboard Apollo 10 and later Apollo 17—and completed three spaceflights during his career. Before Apollo 17, he also became the second American to perform a spacewalk.
When he climbed back into the lunar module, his footprints became part of the final human tracks ever left on the Moon.
Cernan died in 2017, never seeing another astronaut take his place.
Those historic footprints remain on the lunar surface, waiting for humanity’s next return.
