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Q. Who were the last men on the Moon? — Yolanda C.
A. Eugene Cernan and Jack Schmitt of the U.S. were last.
The Apollo 17 flight lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on December 7, 1972, to become the last manned lunar mission to date. A three-man Apollo team rode atop a Saturn V rocket on a mission that lasted 12 days 13 hours and 52 minutes.

Apollo 17 arrived at Earth's pock-marked natural satellite after coasting across a quarter million miles of space from Earth for three days.

Astronauts Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt and Eugene A. Cernan rode a Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) down to the surface of the Moon, while Ronald E. Evans stayed behind in Apollo 17's command capsule.

The curtain came down on the Apollo Moon program after they returned to Earth.

Learn more about astronauts on the Moon:

• Apollo Lunar Landings 1969-1972  »»
• Apollo Lunar Surface Journal  »»
• Apollo 17 Lunar Surface Journal  »»
• Moonport: History of Apollo Launches  »»
• The Apollo Spacecraft Chronology  »»
• Annotated Bibliography of the Apollo Program  »»
• National Air and Space Museum Remembers Apollo Manned Space Missions  »»

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