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[b]Space Cover #431: Astronaut Gene Cernan: A Tribute[/b] Astronaut Gene Cernan, one of the twelve men to walk on the moon, passed away at age 82 on January 16, 2017. US Navy Captain Gene Cernan was one of fourteen astronauts selected in NASA's third astronaut group in 1963. Then in 1966, Cernan and Thomas Stafford, as the Gemini-Titan 9 back-up crew, became the prime crew upon the tragic deaths of the original GT-9 prime crew of See and Bassett. Their GT-9A flight was beset with problems, with their Agena target vehicle exploding upon takeoff. Their flight was delayed until a second Agena was successfully launched, but a protective shroud only partially deployed, leaving the Agena looking like "an angry alligator," as observed by Stafford. A later EVA on GT-9A by Cernan, only the second EVA by an American, was unsuccessful and full of problems, with Cernan calling it a spacewalk from hell (see SCOTW #371). Cernan's second spaceflight, Apollo 10,was a lunar orbital mission and paved the way for Apollo 11's successful moon landing. Then on Apollo 17, the Apollo Program's last flight to the moon, Cernan, along with Jack Schmitt, became the last of the twelve men to walk on the moon. Cernan and Schmitt covered 22 miles using a Lunar Rover during their 22 hours of lunar exploration and returned 249 pounds of lunar material to earth. Cernan, along with Jim Lovell and John Young, have the distinction of being the only three people to travel to the moon twice. The cover at the top marks the Gemini-Titan 9A flight and is signed by the crew of Cernan and Stafford. It bears a USN Atlantic Recovery Fleet rubber stamp cachet and is canceled aboard the USS Wasp, the GT-9A Prime Recovery Ship. These two covers mark Cernan's two lunar flights. The top cover is an Apollo 10 NASA Exchange crew patch/mission emblem launch cover and is signed by the crew. The bottom cover, with an official Apollo 17 NASA/KSC rubber stamp cachet, is signed by the Apollo 17 crew. This impressive cover was signed for me by Cernan in Atlanta during his "Last Man on the Moon" book tour, and noted by Cernan that he was the 11th moonwalker.
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