He was brought up in Maywood and Bellwood. Early YearsĮugene Cernan was born in Illinois' capital of Chicago on March 14, 1934, to a Slovak father and a Czech mother. Cernan died on January 16, 2017, aged 82. Forty-six years later, no man has set foot on the moon again. On that event, Cernan boarded the spacecraft after Schmitt and is officially recognized as the last man on the moon. On December 11, 1972, Cernan and Harrison Schmitt landed the Apollo 17 on the surface of the moon and became the last two people to set foot on the moon. However, ten more people have walked on the moon since Armstrong and Aldrin. On July 21, 1969, Aldrin and Armstrong piloted the Apollo 11 and became the first two people to land on the moon. The two are perhaps the most recognized men who walked on the moon. How Many Times Has the U.S.A majority of people recognize Neil Armstrong as the person who walked on the moon others might recognize that Buzz Aldrin was his partner. Why Civil Rights Activists Protested the Moon Landing How Landing the First Man on the Moon Cost Dozens of Lives See Photos of How Astronauts Trained for the Apollo Moon Missions

The expense was justified by Kennedy’s 1961 mandate to beat the Soviets to the moon, and after the feat was accomplished ongoing missions lost their viability.

The Apollo program was a costly and labor intensive endeavor, involving an estimated 400,000 engineers, technicians, and scientists, and costing $24 billion (close to $100 billion in today’s dollars). The last men to walk on the moon, astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt of the Apollo 17 mission, left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972. There would be five more successful lunar landing missions, and one unplanned lunar swing-by, Apollo 13. on July 22 Apollo 11 began its journey home, safely splashing down in the Pacific Ocean at 12:51 p.m. READ MORE: 8 Little-Known Facts About the Moon LandingĪt 5:35 p.m., Armstrong and Aldrin successfully docked and rejoined Collins, and at 12:56 a.m. Among the items left on the surface of the moon was a plaque that read: “Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon–July 1969 A.D–We came in peace for all mankind.” the Eagle began its ascent back to the command module. The two men slept that night on the surface of the moon, and at 1:54 p.m. on July 21, both astronauts were back in the lunar module and the hatch was closed. flag, ran a few simple scientific tests, and spoke with President Richard M. “Buzz” Aldrin joined him on the moon’s surface at 11:11 p.m., and together they took photographs of the terrain, planted a U.S. At 10:56 p.m., Armstrong spoke his famous quote, which he later contended was slightly garbled by his microphone and meant to be “that’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.” He then planted his left foot on the gray, powdery surface, took a cautious step forward, and humanity had walked on the moon. As he made his way down the lunar module’s ladder, a television camera attached to the craft recorded his progress and beamed the signal back to Earth, where hundreds of millions watched in great anticipation. At 10:39 p.m., five hours ahead of the original schedule, Armstrong opened the hatch of the lunar module.

Date of first man on the moon