Last Astronaut on the Moon Dead at 82

Former astronaut Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, has died at age 82, the AP reports. NASA announced that Cernan died Monday surrounded by his family. Cernan and Apollo 17 crewmate Harrison Schmitt spent three days on the moon in December 1972. As he followed Schmitt into the lunar lander for the return home, he offered a message of "peace and hope for all mankind." He also traced the initials of his 9-year-old daughter into the dust of the lunar surface. Cernan also took part in a Gemini spaceflight in 1965 and in Apollo 10, the last mission before the one that put Neil Armstrong on the moon in July 1969. (More Gene Cernan stories.)