RIP Gene Cernan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo3-fuYKWB4

Seems like one by one all of my old friends from the moon program are dying. Gene was a great guy to be with. He had a terrific sense of humor.

Once when I was visiting friends in the lower Florida keys I got a phone call from NASA that I was needed at a meeting at the cape the next morning. I told them that it was at least a three hour drive back to the mainland, if a bridge wasn't closed and another seven or so from there to the Cape.

They told me to go to the Boca Chica Naval Air Stataion a few keys south and they would have someone pick me up. I got into a partial pressure suit and the someone turned out to be Gene flying a T-33 jet trainer, so I followed Gene all the way in the rear seat while he tried to shake me up doing rolls and loops. Of course that did not faze me, I had a private pilots license myself, but I sure enjoyed the trip.

Thanks for sharing that.

That had to be one of the best jobs ever. Being one of the engineers who helped put men on the moon and return them safely.

It's a shame people thought that it was a waste of taxpayers money. A lot of them just don't seem to realize all the technology that has come from the program.

Gene walked on the moon before I was born. I'm really hoping that we go back sometime in my lifetime. Here's hoping that Gene's legacy of the last man to walk on the moon is erased soon. (I have a feeling he'd want that.)

Unfortunately I have reached an age where it seems nothing happened before I was born.

There are good reasons for establishing a base on the moon. It can serve as a launching point for deep space missions, to Mars and further without wasting the fuel required to escape Earths gravity.
We may even be able to source fuel on the Moon.

What really shakes me is that both Neil and Gene died at 82 years old. I will be 81 in July. :(