On Thursday, June 23, the San Diego Air & Space Museum will be hosting a historic event, “To the Moon and Back: An Evening with America’s Space Heroes. To the Moon and Back will feature panel discussions with astronauts, flight leaders, and key personnel from the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. Leading up to the event, the Museum’s blog will spotlight each of the evening’s invitees. Today’s spotlight: Gene Cernan, “The Last Man On The Moon.”

Gene Cernan is one of a very small group of people who had the good fortune to visit the moon twice. Selected as an astronaut in 1963, his first flight was aboard Gemini 9 in 1966, when he made a daring and risky spacewalk. He first flew to the moon as the Lunar Module Pilot of Apollo 10, swooping to just a few miles above the lunar surface on a dry run of the Apollo 11 mission. When speeding back through Earth’s atmosphere, Apollo 10 broke the record for the fastest ever manned vehicle, a distinction the mission still holds. Gene’s last flight was as the Commander of Apollo 17, leaving the very last footprints on the moon (for now) and officially closing the Apollo chapter of lunar surface exploration. He is the subject of a recently acclaimed documentary, “The Last Man On The Moon.” For more information, visit http://www.genecernan.com/ or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Cernan.

Tickets for To the Moon and Back are available at www.sandiegoairandspace.org/events/moon.