Astronaut Gene Cernan, last man to walk on moon, dies at 82

Cernan served as commander of Apollo 17

Astronaut Gene Cernan, known for being the last man to leave his footsteps on the moon, died Monday, according to NASA. He was 82.

Cernan flew into space three times, the final time as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972.

"Apollo 17 built upon all of the other missions scientifically," Cernan told NASA in 2008 while recalling the mission. "We had a lunar rover, we were able to cover more ground than most of the other missions. We stayed there a little bit longer. We went to a more challenging unique area in the mountains, to learn something about the history and the origin of the moon itself."

Several new records for human space flight were established during that flight, including the longest lunar landing flight (301 hours, 51 minutes); the longest lunar surface extravehicular activities (22 hours, 6 minutes); the largest lunar sample return (nearly 249 pounds); and the longest time in lunar orbit (147 hours, 48 minutes), according to NASA.

Cernan also piloted the Gemini 9 mission in 1966 and was the lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in 1969. He retired in 1976.

Sign up for ClickOrlando breaking news alerts and email newsletters