(*EVA = Extravehicular activity – ie. time spent out of the lunar module on the Moon’s surface) Most of us can probably name a few people on this list without looking at it, but can you can the first ten people to have walked on the moon’s surface? Probably not and even fewer people will know how much time they spent on the moon! But after reading this, you will soon know the answers…
Charles M. Duke
10 – Charles M. Duke – Mission: Apollo 16 – Total EVA*: 20 hr 14 Min
Wiki Info: Charles Moss “Charlie” Duke Jr. is an American former astronaut, retired U.S. Air Force officer and test pilot. As Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 16 in 1972, he became the tenth and youngest person to walk on the Moon. A former test pilot, Duke has logged 4,147 hours flying time, which includes 3,632 hours in jet aircraft; and 265 hours in space, plus 20 hours and 15 minutes of extravehicular activity. A resident of New Braunfels, Texas, he is currently Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.
John W. Young
9 – John W. Young – Mission: Apollo 16 – Total EVA*: 20 hr 14 Min
Wiki Info: John Watts Young is an American former astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and aeronautical engineer, who became the ninth person to walk on the Moon as Commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972. Young enjoyed the longest career of any astronaut, becoming the first person to make six space flights over the course of 42 years of active NASA service and is the only person to have piloted, and been commander of, four different classes of spacecraft: Gemini, the Apollo Command/Service Module, the Apollo Lunar Module, and the Space Shuttle.
James B. Irwin
8 – James B. Irwin – Mission: Apollo 15 – Total EVA*: 18 hr 35 Min
Wiki Info: Irwin was born March 17, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania of Scottish and Irish descent, to parents James Irwin and Elsa Mathilda Irwin. Irwin’s grandparents emigrated to the U.S. from Altmore Parish at Pomeroy in County Tyrone, Ireland around 1859. He graduated from East High School in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1947. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Naval Science from the United States Naval Academy in 1951 and a Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering and Instrumentation Engineering from the University of Michigan in 1957.
David R. Scott
7 – David R. Scott – Mission: Apollo 15 – Total EVA*: 19 hr 08 Min
Wiki Info: David Randolph Scott is an American former NASA astronaut, retired U.S. Air Force officer and former test pilot. He belonged to the third group of NASA astronauts, selected in October 1963. As an astronaut, Scott became the seventh person to walk on the Moon. Before becoming an astronaut, Scott graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and joined the United States Air Force. He graduated from the Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School and Aerospace Research Pilot School.
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Edgar D. Mitchell
6 – Edgar D. Mitchell – Mission: Apollo 14 – Total EVA*: 9 hr 23 Min
Wiki Info: Mitchell was born on September 17, 1930, in Hereford, Texas. He came from a ranching family that moved to New Mexico during the Depression and considered Artesia, New Mexico as his hometown. He first learned to fly at 13 and was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout. He was also a member of DeMolay International, part of the Masonic Fraternity, and was inducted into its Hall of Fame.
Alan B. Shepard
5 – Alan B. Shepard – Mission: Apollo 14 – Total EVA*: 9 hr 23 Min
Wiki Info: At age 47, he became the fifth and oldest person to walk on the Moon, and the only one of the Mercury Seven astronauts to do so. During the mission, he hit two golf balls on the lunar surface. He was Chief of the Astronaut Office from November 1963 to July 1969 (the approximate period of his grounding), and from June 1971 until his retirement from the United States Navy and NASA on August 1, 1974. He was promoted to rear admiral on August 25, 1971, the first astronaut to reach that rank.
Alan Bean
4 – Alan Bean – Mission: Apollo 12 – Total EVA*: 7 hr 45 Min
Wiki Info: He made his first flight into space aboard Apollo 12, the second manned mission to land on the Moon, at the age of thirty-seven years in November 1969. He made his second and final flight into space on the Skylab 3 mission in 1973, the second manned mission to the Skylab space station. After retiring from the United States Navy in 1975 and NASA in 1981, he pursued his interest in painting, depicting various space-related scenes and documenting his own experiences in space as well as that of his fellow Apollo program astronauts. As of 2017, he is also the last living crew member of Apollo 12.
Pete Conrad
3 – Pete Conrad – Mission: Apollo 12 – Total EVA*: 7 hr 45 Min
Wiki Info: Charles “Pete” Conrad Jr. was an American NASA astronaut, naval officer and aviator, test pilot, and during the Apollo 12 mission became the third man to walk on the Moon. He set an eight-day space endurance record along with his Command Pilot Gordon Cooper on the Gemini 5 mission and commanded the Gemini 11 mission. After Apollo, he commanded the Skylab 2 mission (the first manned one), on which he and his crewmates repaired significant launch damage to the Skylab space station. For this, President Jimmy Carter awarded him the Congressional Space Medal of Honor in 1978.
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Buzz Aldrin
2 – Buzz Aldrin – Mission: Apollo 11 – Total EVA*: 2 hr 15 Min
Wiki Info: Buzz Aldrin is an American engineer and former astronaut. As the Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 11, he was one of the first two humans to land on the Moon, and the second person to walk on it. He set foot on the Moon at 03:15:16 on July 21, 1969, following mission commander Neil Armstrong. He is a former U.S. Air Force officer with the Command Pilot rating. He also went into orbit on the Gemini 12 mission, finally achieving the goals for EVA (space-walk work) that paved the way to the Moon and success for the Gemini program.
Neil A. Armstrong
1 – Neil A. Armstrong – Mission: Apollo 11 – Total EVA*: 2 hr 32 Min
Wiki Info: Neil Alden Armstrong was an American astronaut, engineer, and the first person to walk on the Moon. He was also an aerospace engineer, naval aviator, test pilot, and university professor. Before becoming an astronaut, Armstrong was an officer in the U.S. Navy and served in the Korean War. After the war, he earned his bachelor’s degree at Purdue University and served as a test pilot at the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) High-Speed Flight Station, where he logged over 900 flights. He later completed graduate studies at the University of Southern California.