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Eugene Andrew Cernan was born on March 14, 1934. He is a retired United States Navy officer and a former NASA astronaut of Czechoslovakian ancestry. He has been into space three times: as co-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. In that final lunar landing mission, Cernan became "the last man on the moon" since he was the last to re-enter the Apollo Lunar Module during its third and final extra-vehicular activity (EVA). While crewmate Harrison Schmitt was "the last man to arrive on the moon" as Cernan got out the module first. Cernan was also a backup crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 missions.

Cernan in the LM after EVA 3Cernan 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 to the moon in the lunar-lander twice (of which the first was a non-landing test mission). Cernan orbited the moon on Apollo 10, and landed on the moon on Apollo 17.

Cernan at the beginning of EVA 3While 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 over three times the length Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin spent outside the LM on Apollo 11. During this time they covered over 35 kilometers using the Lunar Rover and spent a great deal of time collecting geologic samples that would shed light on the moon's early history.