Gene Cernan, commander of the Apollo 17 mission to the moon, poses in front of an American flag and the crew’s lunar rover.
NASA’s Apollo space program stretched from 1961 to 1972, and culminated in a dozen men walking on the moon.
Gene Cernan, who died Jan. 16, 2016, was the 11th man to set foot on the moon — but the last to leave the lunar surface at the end of his third and final moonwalk with Harrison “Jack” Schmitt.
The following photos look back at the NASA astronauts who walked upon the lunar surface.
