Eugene Cernan, the last Apollo astronaut to walk on the moon, died at the age of 82 Monday.
Cernan was the eleventh and last person to walk on the moon. He was the last man to re-enter the Lunar Module Challenger after the mission’s third and final moon-walk. NASA did not specify how Cernan died, only saying the he was “surrounded by his family.”
Cernan was part of the astronaut team which took the famous “Blue Marble” image of Earth from the Apollo 17 spacecraft at a distance 28,000 miles. It is one of the most reproduced images in human history.
Only six astronauts who walked on the moon are still alive including Alan Bean (age 84), David Scott (age 84), John W. Young (age 86), Charles Duke (age 81), Buzz Aldrin (age 86) and Harrison Schmitt (age 81.)
Every living person to walk on the moon is past the average American life expectancy of 79 years.
Attempts to get some new moon-walkers, however, aren’t going well. President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress were more interested in funding global warming science than going back to the moon during their tenure.
Obama repeatedly attempted to cut the parts of NASA that focus on science and exploration, so that money could be redirected to global warming research.
President-elect Donald Trump’s administration appears to be interested in returning American astronauts to the moon or even sending them to Mars.
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