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Astronaut Eugene Cernan Joins FOS Board

Captain Eugene A. Cernan joined the Friends of Slovakia Board of Advisors on February 12, 2008. He is a retired U.S. naval officer and a former NASA astronaut of Slovak 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, the final lunar landing mission, making Captain Cernan the last man to have left his footprints on the lunar surface. He was also a backup crew member for the Gemini 12, Apollo 7 and Apollo 14 missions.

Captain Cernan is a native of Chicago, IL, son of a Czech mother and a Slovak father. He is a 1956 graduate of Purdue University with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He was commissioned into the United States Navy through the Naval Reserve Officers Training Corps at Purdue, and became a naval aviator flying jets. He also holds a M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. In 1976, Captain Cernan retired both from the Navy (as a Captain) and from NASA, and went into private business.

Captain Cernan is one of only threemen to voyage to themoon on two different occasions (the others being Jim Lovell and John Young), and one of only twelvemen to walk on themoon. Captain Cernan orbited themoon on Apollo 10 and one of twelve to work on themoon on Apollo 17. While on the moon during Apollo 17, he and his crewmate Harrison Schmitt performed three extra-vehicular outings during a three day stay for a total of about 22 hours of exploration. 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.

As Captain Cernan got ready to climb the ladder he spoke these words, the last spoken by a human standing on the moon's surface: "As we leave the Moon at Taurus- Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind. As I take these last steps from the surface for some time to come, I'd just like to record that America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow. Godspeed the crew of Apollo 17."

He is the author of "The Last Man on the Moon", his memoirs of his career both with NASA and before. In the 1998miniseries, "From the Earth to theMoon", Cernanwas played by Daniel Hugh Kelly. Captain Cernan is featured in the documentary, "In the Shadowof theMoon", and the Discovery miniseries, "When We Left Earth".

Captain Cernan was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on March 19, 1993.