R.I.P. Gene Cernan...last man to walk on the moon

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Gene Cernan, an early NASA astronaut who was the last man to set foot on the moon, died Monday, NASA announced in a tweet. He was 82.

Details of Cernan's death were not immediately known.

Cernan was the commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972 – the last lunar mission and one of the final Apollo flights. When Cernan stepped out from lunar module “Challenger” he became the 11th person to walk on the moon. His lunar module pilot, Jack Schmitt, was the 12th. But as commander, Cernan was the last to re-enter the lunar module, giving him the designation of being the last person to walk on the lunar surface.

Cernan had previously served as the lunar module pilot on Apollo 10 and was a pilot on the Gemini IX mission.

On the Apollo 10 flight, Cernan and Commander Tom Stafford flew to within eight miles of the surface of the moon. The May mission served as a "dress rehearsal" for the historic Apollo 11 mission two months later.

Cernan became the second American to walk in space on the Gemini IX mission in 1966.

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