Who was the Last Man on the Moon?

His first spaceflight was Gemini 9, which had an ambitious agenda.

Cernan was tasked to do one of the first American spacewalks, which ended up being immensely difficult as the spacecraft was not designed with enough handholds.

Though exhausted, Cernan completed many of his tasks and provided valuable information for future missions.

Cernan next flew into space on Apollo 10 in 1969. In the lunar module Snoopy, he and Tom Stafford skimmed within eight nautical miles on the moon to simulate a lunar landing.

All went smoothly until Snoopy was preparing to head back to Charlie Brown.

With Snoopy's guidance system inadvertently pointing the wrong way, the confused spacecraft began spinning above the surface.

The startled crew fought to get the spacecraft under control, and succeeded in doing so within seconds. "We've got our marbles," Stafford told Mission Control in relief.

Cernan was eager to walk on the moon on Apollo 17, his next assignment; his previous mission had come so close.

This time, he was ready to bring his spacecraft all the way – on pilot's terms, of course.

"There's no way I'm going to go all the way to the moon, particularly for a second time, and let a computer land me on the moon.

"There's no way I'm going to go all the way to the moon, particularly for a second time, and let a computer land me on the moon.

The arrogance of a pilot, particularly naval aviators, is too great to allow that to happen," Cernan quipped in a 2007 NASA oral interview.

Cernan and Harrison Schmitt touched down safely on the moon to do three spacewalks while on the surface.

With 22 hours and 6 minutes outside, Apollo 17 set the mark for longest extravehicular activity done by one mission on the surface of the moon.

Meanwhile, Ron Evans, the command module pilot, set a record for most time orbiting the moon.

The mission's greatest discovery came when Schmitt exclaimed that he had found orange regolith, or moon soil.

Cernan joked in his autobiography that he feared his crewmate had "overdosed on rocks", but took a look despite his skepticism.

The regolith was indeed orange. It turned out to be tiny bits of colored glass that likely came from a surface vent.

Just before going back into the lunar module, Cernan drove the lunar rover roughly a mile away so that the video camera could photograph the takeoff the next day. Next, he knelt and etched his daughter Tracy's initials — T D C — into the dust, according to his autobiography, "The Last Man on the Moon."

Years later, Cernan was looking at a painting done by fellow astronaut Alan Bean.

Years later, Cernan was looking at a painting done by fellow astronaut Alan Bean.

It showed the Apollo 17 crew working near a massive boulder they had encountered during their mission.

According to Bean's book, "Painting Apollo," Cernan said he wished he had put his daughter's name on the side

Bean, therefore, included her name on the rock in the painting, which is called "Tracy's Boulder.

As Cernan prepared to climb up the lunar ladder for the last time, he paused and spoke these words: