Gene Cernan obituary
At 1.54pm on 11 December 1972, Gene Cernan piloted Challenger, Apollo 17's lunar module, into the Taurus-Littrow valley, near the Sea of Serenity, on the surface of the moon. In later years Cernan, who has died aged 82, would describe the valley where he had landed accompanied by the geologist Jack Schmitt as "our own private little Camelot".
Three days later, having travelled to such locations as the Sculptured Hills, and the Van Serg and Sherlock craters, the astronauts prepared to leave. Cernan marked out his daughter Teresa's initials in the dust, where they remain. Before climbing back into the lunar module, he paused and spoke to Mission Control back in Houston: "As we leave the moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and, God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind."
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