Eugene Cernan

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Eugene Cernan bigraphy, stories - Retired United States Navy officer and former NASA astronaut

Eugene Cernan : biography

March 14, 1934 –

Eugene Andrew Cernan (born March 14, 1934) is a retired United States Navy officer and a former NASA astronaut. He has been into space three times: as pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966; as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969; and as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final Apollo lunar landing.

On Apollo 17, Cernan became the eleventh person to walk on the Moon and "the last man on the Moon" since he was the last to re-enter the lunar module Challenger after the mission’s third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA). (Crewmate Harrison Schmitt was "the last man to arrive on the Moon", as Cernan left the module first.) Cernan was also a backup crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 space missions.

Honors and awards

  • Navy Astronaut Wings
  • Navy Distinguished Service Medal, twice
  • Navy Distinguished Flying Cross
  • NASA Distinguished Service Medal
  • NASA Exceptional Service Medal
  • U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame
  • : Grand Officer (or 2nd Class) of the Order of the White Double Cross (25 September 1994) Slovak republic website, : 2nd Class (click on "Holders of the Order of the 2nd Class White Double Cross" to see the holders’ table)

Biography

Early years

A native of Chicago, Illinois, son of a Slovak father and a Czech mother, Cernan received his father’s name, originally spelled Ondrej Čerňan (). He grew up in the towns of Bellwood and Maywood. He graduated from Proviso East High School in Maywood, Illinois. He attended Purdue University, where he became a member of Phi Gamma Delta, and graduated with a B.S. in electrical engineering in 1956. He was commissioned into the U.S. Navy through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps at Purdue, and became a Naval Aviator flying jets. He also received a M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1963.

NASA career

Cernan was selected among the third group of NASA astronauts in October 1963 by NASA to participate in projects Gemini and Apollo.

Project Gemini

Cernan was originally selected as back-up pilot for Gemini 9 with Thomas Stafford, but when the prime crew was killed in a plane crash, they then became the prime crew. Gemini 9-A encountered a number of problems; the original target vehicle exploded and the planned docking was made impossible by a protective shroud failing to separate on their substitute target vehicle. Cernan performed the second American EVA (only the third ever) but his space suit overheated resulting in a very high heart rate. The crew performed a demonstration of an early rendezvous that would be used in Apollo 10: the first optical rendezvous; and a lunar orbit abort rendezvous.

Apollo Program

Cernan is one of only three humans to voyage to the Moon on two different occasions (the others being Jim Lovell and John Young), one of only twelve people to walk on the Moon and the only person to have descended toward the Moon in the lunar lander twice (the first was Apollo 10’s non-landing mission). Apollo 10 holds the world/moon record for the highest speed attained by any manned vehicle at 39,897 km/h (11.08 km/s or 24,791 mph) during its return from the Moon on May 26, 1969.

While on the Moon during Apollo 17, he and his crewmate Harrison Schmitt performed three EVAs for a total of about 22 hours of exploration. Their first EVA alone was more than three times the length Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent outside the LM on Apollo 11. During this time they covered more than using the Lunar Rover and spent a great deal of time collecting geologic samples that would shed light on the Moon’s early history. Cernan piloted the rover on its final sortie, recording a maximum speed of , giving him the (unofficial) lunar land speed record.Lyons, Pete. "10 Best Ahead-of-Their-Time Machines", in Car and Driver, 1/88, p.78. As of 1 March 2010, no challenge has been announced.