Eugene Cernan Passed Away

[capmaster]

Eugene Cernan, the 11th person to step on the moon and the 12th and up to now last to leave it, died yesterday at a hospital in Houston, Texas. He was 82 years old.

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/16/us/eugene-cernan-death.html?_r=0

 

Eugene has always been a special hero of mine. To my senses Fred Haise, Tom Stafford and Cernan were the coolest of all the guys on Apollo spaceships.

 

R.I.P. Eugene :(

[jdgm]

Apollo 17 was the only mission to include a geologist - Jack Schmitt.

Cernan was cool, yes but very lucky to get any mission at all after the incident where he ditched a chopper in a swamp; Deke Slayton sort of covered for him on that one, so the books say.

For me Pete Conrad and Buzz Aldrin are also 2 of the best - but they were/are all extraordinary, highly qualified and motivated men.

 

I can recommend "A Man On The Moon" by Andrew Chaikin. Excellent and very detailed book (and an easy read) about the entire Apollo project.

[pippy]

I didn't know anything about him before I read the link but from what I read there I must say I like the cut of his jib;

 

"He also slid down a banister on a visit to the White House and once crashed a helicopter in the Atlantic while chasing a dolphin.......(he) also scratched his daughter’s initials — TDC, for Teresa Dawn Cernan — in the lunar dust, a talisman that might last eons on a lifeless world"

Quite a chap!

 

RIP, Mr. Cernan.

 

Pip.

[kelly campbell]

R.I.P. to a great American Hero...those original bunch were feerless and had B#lls made of brass.

[capmaster]

With Gemini IX, commanded by Tom Stafford, Cernan met the Augmented Target Docking Adapter, or ATDA, where the top cover had failed to completely open up. "That's a weird looking machine," Stafford said. "Would you believe that there's a nose cone on that rascal. The shroud is half open. It looks like an angry alligator out there rotating around." The term "Angry Alligator" Stafford coined that moment remains until today for this ADTA view.

 

 

Although NASA dropped the idea to make Cernan try removing the cover, the second, scheduled EVA appeared dangerous enough. It might have taken his life, but with luck and power of endurance he managed getting back into the capsule. Never before anybody had tried to do any outboard work in weightlessness, and pioneering something entirely new is never easy, let alone in space.

[Retired]

First I heard about it, thanks for Sharing. RIP

[flyingarmadillo]

Saw it right around the time NASA announced it. Sorry to hear it, but they're all getting pretty old. Six of the 12 men who have walked on the moon are still living including Buzz Aldrin (the second man to walk on the moon) who will be 87 on January 20.The oldest living Apollo astronaut is Frank Borman who flew on Apollo 8 and will be 89 in March.

[Dennis G]

I posted this on another forum:

 

http://www.mylespaul.com/forums/showthread.php?t=383978

 

RIP Gene, RIP. Guys of your era as noted has stones of steel.

 

Can't remember which one astronaut said it, but asked about how he felt going in to space replied something to the effect of "how would you feel knowing that each mfgr supplying a part was the lowest bidder?"

 

Let that sink in for a bit...

[Mr. Gibson]

Some say we never went to the moon. We can hardly get a rocket up into orbit now without it blowing up. I'm changing my name to Mr. Conspiracy. Suits me better. Let the rants begin.

[4Hayden]

RIP

 

4H