Eugene Cernan Flew Apollo 10 LM Snoopy and Was Apollo 17 Moonwalker

Summary: American astronaut Eugene Cernan flew Apollo 10 LM Snoopy and was an Apollo 17 moonwalker, the last moonwalker, during his 12-year career at NASA.

NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan at press conference April 26, 1969, with Peanuts cartoon character Snoopy, namesake of Apollo 10 Lunar Module Snoopy; NASA ID S69-32037: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via NASA History-Apollo Flight Journal

American astronaut Eugene Cernan flew Apollo 10 LM Snoopy and was an Apollo 17 moonwalker and, in fact, the last moonwalker, during his 12-year career at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Eugene “Gene” Andrew Cernan (born Wednesday, March 14, 1934) publicly began his space career at NASA with the official announcement of his selection for 14-member Astronaut Group 3, known as The Fourteen, on Friday, Oct. 18, 1963, at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), renamed Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) on Monday, Feb. 19, 1973. Naval aviator and officer Cernan was joined by three other U.S. Navy officers: naval aviators and test pilots Richard Francis Gordon Jr. (born Oct. 5, 1929) and Alan LaVern Bean (born March 15, 1932); and naval aviator Roger Bruce Chaffee (Feb. 15, 1935-Jan. 27, 1967).

The United States Air Force (USAF) contributed eight to the Fourteen. Edwin “Buzz” Eugene Aldrin Jr. (born Jan. 20, 1930) and William Alison Anders (born Oct. 17, 1933) were naval fighter pilots. Charles “Charlie” Arthur Bassett II (Dec. 30, 1934-Feb. 28, 1966), Michael Collins (born Oct. 31, 1930), Donn Fulton Eisele (June 23, 1930-Dec. 2, 1987), Theodore “Ted” Cordy Freeman (Feb. 18, 1930-Oct. 31, 1964) and David Randolph Scott (born June 6, 1932) served as naval test pilots. Civilian astronaut Russell “Rusty” Louis Schweickart (born Oct. 25, 1935), having served as a fighter pilot and in the Air National Guard, came to NASA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Experimental Astronomy Laboratory.

Two selectees represented the United States Marine Corps (USMC). Commissioned through the Naval Reserve Officer Training Corps (Navy ROTC), Clifton Curtis “C.C.” Williams Jr. (Sept. 26, 1932-Oct. 5, 1967) was a test pilot and naval aviator. Civlian astronaut Ronnie Walter Cunningham (born March 16, 1932), a naval enlistee commissioned as a USMC fighter pilot and serving in the Marine Corps Reserve from 1956 to 1975, came to NASA from global policy think tank RAND (Research And Development) Corporation.

Gene Cernan’s 12-year NASA career featured three spaceflights. His first flight into space occurred as pilot of Gemini IX-A (Gemini 9A). Project Gemini’s seventh crewed flight launched Friday, June 3, 1966, and splashed down Sunday, June 6. Astronaut Group 2 selectee Thomas Patten Stafford (born Sept. 17, 1930) was the mission’s command pilot.

Apollo 10 rejoined Cernan, as Lunar Module Snoopy Pilot, and Stafford, as Commander. Astronaut Group 2 selectee John Watts Young (born Sept. 24, 1930) served as Command Module Charlie Brown Pilot. Apollo 10 launched Sunday, May 18, 1969, and splashed down Monday, May 26. The mission operated as a “dress rehearsal,” minus the lunar landing, for lunar-landing mission Apollo 11.

In an interview Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2007, with Rebecca Wright for NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project, Cernan emphasized the importance of the “dress rehearsal” mission. “But anyway, I keep telling Neil [A.] Armstrong that we painted that white line in the sky all the way to the Moon down to 47,000 feet so he wouldn’t get lost, and all he had to do was land,” Cernan recalled. “Made it sort of easy for him.”

Cernan’s third spaceflight occurred as the Apollo 17 mission commander. The Apollo space program’s last lunar landing mission launched Thursday, Dec. 7, 1972, and splashed down Tuesday, Dec. 19. Cernan and Lunar Module Challenger Pilot Harrison Hagan “Jack” Schmitt (born July 3, 1935) became the 11th and 12th moonwalkers, respectively, while Command Module America Pilot Ronald Ellwin Evans Jr. (Nov. 10, 1933-April 7, 1990) remained in lunar orbit. Boarding Challenger after Schmitt made Cernan the last moonwalker.

In his NASA Oral History Project interview, Cernan described his lasts steps on the moon as “perhaps more memorable” than his first step. He had an awareness of “the endlessness of space, the endlessness of time” and a view of “the Earth in all its splendor, in all its glory, multicolors of the blues of the oceans and whites of the snow and the clouds.” He explained: “I wanted, like in the simulator, I wanted to push the freeze button, stop time, stop the world.”

The takeaways for NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan’s flying Apollo 10 LM Snoopy and moonwalking for Apollo 17 are that the naval aviator stepped onto the moon as the 11th of 12 moonwalkers and that his footsteps sculpt the lunar surface as the last moonwalk.

official portrait of Apollo 10 Lunar Module Snoopy Pilot Eugene Cernan in front of Apollo 10 Saturn V at John F. Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-B: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via NASA History-Apollo Flight Journal

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

NASA astronaut Eugene Cernan at press conference April 26, 1969, with Peanuts cartoon character Snoopy, namesake of Apollo 10 Lunar Module Snoopy; NASA ID S69-32037: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via NASA History-Apollo Flight Journal @ https://spaceflight.nasa.gov/gallery/images/apollo/apollo10/html/s69-32037.html; NASA on The Commons, No known copyright restrictions, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/nasacommons/albums/72157634967503435/; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo_10_Cernan_and_Snoopy_at_news_conference.jpg

official portrait of Apollo 10 Lunar Module Snoopy Pilot Eugene Cernan in front of Apollo 10 Saturn V at John F. Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39-B: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Public Domain, via NASA History-Apollo Flight Journal @ https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a410/ap10-KSC-69PC-148HR.jpg; Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Gene_Cernan_Apollo_10_official.jpg

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