The Last Astronaut On The Moon Gene Cernan Dies

One bright moonlit night in Florida, astronaut Gene Cernan spotted a big yellow ball in the sky. ¨You see that spot just by the ´eye?¨ he asked, reffering to the vivid face of the Man in the Moon, that was where he had landed-it was the Valley of Taurus-Littrow. He was the last human to leave his footprints, and obviously he´d had the experience of a lifetime. America was very lucky as a country, as a space-going species, to have Gene Cernan, who has died at the age of 82 on a Monday as one of us. His vehemence for traveling in space and the ability he had to convey the wonders of space was amazing. A certain ABC crew member was quite lucky; in 1981 he was asked to join a very intelligent and experienced team in order to cover up the upcoming NASA space shuttle program. He joined the best: anchor Frank Reynolds, correspondent Jules Bergman, and a team of people under executive producer Bob Siegenthaler (who also engaged Cernan as their outside expert). In 1983, during the launch of of STS-8 -- NASA´s first try to send up a shuttle without the benefit of daylight. Cernan, although being the barve man he was, he was still a bit overwhelmed by the landing of the third Space Shuttle. March 29, 1982 was the day of the scheduled touchdown, and a sandstorm whipped up on that day, this required Cernan to wear goggles on the air to relay the news. As Cernan put it, he traveled in ¨the golden age of space¨. For more about this topic, go visit http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/astronaut-gene-cernan-moon-us/story?id=44844405