Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans do not pay their debts.

Infrastructure week. at last.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

They are lying in pursuit of an agenda.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

He really is that stupid.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

The words do not have to be perfect.

I really should read my own blog.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / CAPT (ret) Gene Cernan 1934-2017: Rest in Peace

CAPT (ret) Gene Cernan 1934-2017: Rest in Peace

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CAPT (ret) Gene Cernan, the last man to walk on the Moon, has died.

Here is CAPT Cernan’s take on the Right Stuff:

Update at 10:50 PM EDT

Thanks to commenter Another Scott, here’s the restored video of the Apollo 11 EVA:

 

Reader Interactions

90Comments

  2. 2.

    Roger Moore

    Re: his comment on Neil Armstrong. Armstrong was far less famous than he might have been in large part because he shunned celebrity instead of embracing it. As I understand it, he felt that the Apollo missions were a team effort, and it was unfair for him to get so much attention that others rightly deserved to share. Because of that, he made a deliberate decision to avoid attention so that people who were interested in the moon landings would have to pay attention to all the other people who were involved. It was an astounding display of genuine modesty.

  3. 3.

    EllenH

    I’ll add my voice to the chorus, but if you haven’t seen Hidden Figures, do it! It’s that good!

  5. 5.

    Jeffro

    Hey I went to Neil Armstrong Elementary back in the day, not Michael Jackson Middle or Celebrity U; I’ve got my heroes in the right order!

    So…what wondrous things do we think will ‘drop’ this Tues, Wed, and Thurs re: the Trumpchurian Candidate? I’m excited at the possibilities!!

  6. 6.

    Jeffro

    @EllenH: My wife and daughter saw it and raved about it. I want to see that at some point and “La La Land”, too. And “Split” – that is just too creepy-cool to pass up!

  7. 7.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Buzz Aldrin was medically evac’d from Antarctica about six weeks ago. Haven’t heard or seen any follow-ups, so I hope and assume he’s okay.

    All those ‘nauts were important to me, and I knew that, but I don’t think I recognized just how important they were in my life until they began leaving us. All of the Original Seven are gone now, with John Glenn’s passing last month. Armstrong is gone, but Aldrin and Collins are still with us. When they go, it will truly be the end of a storied era.

    I feel very fortunate to have lived during those years. They were magical.

  9. 9.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Five are gone, seven are left, and they’re all in their very late 70’s/80’s.

    Soon no man who walked on the moon will be living.

    This sucks.

  11. 11.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @efgoldman: Yellowstone. Watched it on a tiny portable TV on some other camper’s tailgate. That September, I started kindergarten.

  12. 12.

    EllenH

    @Miss Bianca: I wanted to watch it right after I got home from seeing Hidden Figures, but couldn’t find it on any of my (many) streaming services. I’m old enough to remember those early morning launches and the splash downs, and of course John Glenn.

  13. 13.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @efgoldman: Yeah, but if we hadn’t killed off manned exploration back in the 70’s, we might have that lunar base imagined by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. Men (and women) walking on the moon would be boring pedestrian stuff now. But it’s not.

    And that’s what sucks.

  15. 15.

    Jeffro

    @efgoldman:

    I’m not sure “excited” is a word I’d use, except ironically.

    Well, since most of us here already know the score with Comrade Donald, any & all further disclosures from this point on mean that a) either there’s more evidence being put forward and/or b) more people are hearing about his & his crew’s service to Putin & Russia. Those are good reasons to be hopeful, every day. Let it all build, let the obvious (to us) become just as obvious to fence-sitters, and maybe the occasional wingnut. The more that’s out there, the more that comes to light, the more obvious shit he tries to pull (like ending sanctions on Russia, or getting us out of NATO), the closer we are to the GOP’s day of reckoning. They – not all of them, anyway – will not be able to countenance treason like this.

  17. 17.

    Jeffro

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    if we hadn’t killed off manned exploration back in the 70’s, we might have that lunar base imagined by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. Men (and women) walking on the moon would be boring pedestrian stuff now. But it’s not.

    And that’s what sucks.

    Agreed. I’d go tomorrow but NASA keeps asking for a physical, and well…

  18. 18.

    Miss Bianca

    @EllenH: Had to get it from the library – I ordered it right after after John Glenn died, it just came for me a week ago!

  19. 19.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @efgoldman:

    One of my mom’s uncles fought in the Spanish American war. Lived into his 90s.

    I have possibly mentioned previously that I had a great-grandfather who was in both the Civil War and the Spanish American War. Lied about his age both times.

  21. 21.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @SiubhanDuinne: I saw Apollo XI launch; I was visiting my grandparents in the Orlando area at the time, and you could see it climbing into the sky. We visited the Space Center the week before and got to see it on the pad from quite a ways away.

    Got home in time to watch the event on the TV. The day was clear, the moon was just past the first quarter, and you looked at it and thought “holy shit there are men walking around up there!”

    I was 12.

  22. 22.

    Another Scott

    The mid-60s through the early-70s really was a magical time for anyone interested in what happened above our atmosphere. There was so much happening so quickly. So much excitement. Such a rush to win against the Soviets, but to do it publicly, and do it (reasonably) safely. The country and the world saw our early failures, and tragedies.

    Anyone who says that the federal government can’t do anything, well, they need to review the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs. We can do great things if we’ve got the will and are willing to spend the money.

    Godspeed to Gene and to all the other giants.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  23. 23.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne: I was explaining why I don’t have the same memories of the Mercury and Apollo astronauts that my elders do. I meant it with great respect and veneration. Obviously.

  25. 25.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Jeffro: Weirdly, I was at Neil Armstrong’s 50th birthday party. It was hosted by his next door neighbors, close family friends which is shy I was there.

    RIP, Spaceman Cernan.

  26. 26.

    SFBayAreaGal

    Too many of my heroes are leaving. I keep hoping we will return to the moon. It has been too long. I want us back in space so much. Good bye Gene and thank you.

  29. 29.

    Jeffro

    @efgoldman:

    [GOP MoCs] are scared shitless of their mouth-breathing flying monkey primary voters

    True, they are afraid of that particular group…but I think they’re about to learn that in all but the reddest and dumbest (but I repeat myself) GOP districts, there are three other groups of voters: Dems (yes, even in red states) with ever-increasing amounts of spine/outrage; Independents who are already soured on this reality-TV experiment; and GOP voters who might hate Obamacare but love this ACA thing, who hated Hillary but…she’s gone now, and so they cannot get behind a Russian puppet, and so on.

    Let’s see how it all shakes out. Nobody likes to think their president will sell them out to a hostile foreign power…and nobody really wants to go to bat for Donald Trump…

  34. 34.

    JCJ

    About 18 years ago I went to a Purdue alumni fundraiser where they had all of the living Purdue astronaut alumni present that were not actively training for a mission. It was in the old fieldhouse so it was a large crowd. Seeing all of them up on the stage was really awesome. Obviously the biggest cheers were for Neil Armstrong, but Eugene Cernan got a large ovation as well.

  35. 35.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @SiubhanDuinne: Thank you. The hosts were very close family friends – we’d spent vacations with them when I was a child. I have another story but it would be weird to share, I think.

  37. 37.

    cmorenc

    @Roger Moore:

    Re: his comment on Neil Armstrong. Armstrong was far less famous than he might have been in large part because he shunned celebrity instead of embracing it. As I understand it, he felt that the Apollo missions were a team effort, and it was unfair for him to get so much attention that others rightly deserved to share. Because of that, he made a deliberate decision to avoid attention so that people who were interested in the moon landings would have to pay attention to all the other people who were involved. It was an astounding display of genuine modesty.

    Speaking of modesty and lunar astronauts, Brian Regan’s “I walked on the moon” comedy routine is priceless. And very apropos to astronauts and celebrity. Wait for it – it takes two and a half minutes for his routine to lead up to astronauts on the moon, but the build-up is what makes the tale so true and so hilarious.

  38. 38.

    Laura on Kauai

    We lived on base at the NAS Patuxent River back in the mid-80s. All the on-base housing was named after astronauts – we lived in Sheppard Terrace, and other housing was named after John Glenn, Roger Chaffee, Scott Carpenter, and Wally Schirra. Only Carpenter Park and Chaffee Court remain, and there are some streets named after the others now in a residential area. Scott Carpenter used to put on his flight helmet and go into his closet when he lived at Sheppard Terrace for peace and quiet while he studied for his exams.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @OldDave:

    Collins book “Carrying the Fire” is an excellent read.

    I haven’t read it, but you are at least the second, maybe the third, person to recommend it, so I’ll add it to my TBR list. Thanks!

  41. 41.

    Another Scott

    @frosty: The video stream was horrible for just about everyone world-wide. It was recently restored. Restored NASA video of Apollo 11 EVA (3:02:30).

    (Backstory here)

    We saw it live on a neighbor’s B&W set – I was 7. It was really exciting, but spoiled a little by how poor the picture was. But it was from 250,000 miles away!!! Woot!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  43. 43.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @SiubhanDuinne: Beyond Cool. Mega-Cool.

    The best things I can do to compete with it, and while they’re cool, they’re not mega-cool, is that Grace Hopper handed me a nano-second, and that I handed a phone (a TA-312, no less) to Norman Schwartzkopf once.

    I also watched a few minutes of a Seahawks game with then MG John Shalikashvili (or, as he preferred, just “General Shali”) at the DIVARTY commander’s Christmas party one year. Before his wife dragged him back to the party (the TV was on in the kitchen).

  44. 44.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Sorry, I just had to make ALL of you feel old. ?

    I can actually feel old without anyone’s help, but thanks for playing :-)

  45. 45.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Grace Hopper handed me a nano-second, and that I handed a phone (a TA-312, no less) to Norman Schwartzkopf once.

    Um, I once bought a slice of cantaloupe for Mitch Miller.

    And a very famous opera singer once propositioned me, but as he also propositioned at least a dozen other women the same day, I can’t feel like much of a snowflake.

  48. 48.

    Miss Bianca

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    And a very famous opera singer once propositioned me, but as he also propositioned at least a dozen other women the same day, I can’t feel like much of a snowflake.

    sure you can! There’s a *ton* of snowflakes in a blizzard!//

  49. 49.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @SiubhanDuinne: You asked. There was a private plane with a propeller, owned by two men together, one of whom I was related to. The other took his neighbor flying, as an afternoon adventure. The neighbor was, um, skilled with a very higher end kind of airplane. At the landing, it took kind of 3 or 4 approaches because apparently the landing approach is much slower for a propeller powered aircraft. It was quite an event, I’m told.

    Though our family had a bit of a history at that airport. I was born in the next state over, and my father got the call that I was on the way. So he announces that he’s headed to an airport in that state and the tower said “no clearance there, it’s a blizzard. What’s your second choice?” Or something like that; the key part was “no.” My father said something to the effect that he’d flown through anti-aircraft fire and wasn’t afraid of snow, so he was going with or without clearance. He got there and landed, but his partner had to drive down and fly the plane back, because apparently the FAA takes a dim view of that sort of attitude. He had to write “I will follow the orders from the control tower” 2000 times and wait 2 years before he got his license back.

    @Villago Delenda Est: I still think knowing Bootsy is the coolest thing I have, though some folks thin Adrian Belew is the cooler acquaintance. It just didn’t seem that remarkable to go to a birthday party for our friends’ neighbor. Clearly I’m weird; after typing it here I see that it probably was kind of a big deal. It was not a big bash – about 40 people I think.

  50. 50.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    And a very famous opera singer once propositioned me, but as he also propositioned at least a dozen other women the same day, I can’t feel like much of a snowflake

    Imagine the insult if he hadn’t done it.

  52. 52.

    p.a.

    I remember my parents got me out of bed to watch. It was at something like 3am Eastern time, wasn’t it? I was 10. I’m looking at my Commemorative Album of Apollo Flights 8,9,10,11 right now.

  55. 55.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): Two friends from college (identical twins) we Mohammad Ali’s next door neighbors in the ’70s. His house was the after school hangout. Their dad was a bio-chem prof at U of C and later, Yale. They were the coolest people in my class. Weird is different in every family.

  60. 60.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s way cooler!

    @Omnes Omnibus: That’s cold. of course he propositioned SD – it just took him a while to get across the room to her!

    Mr. Q interpreted “you can interrupt dinner right here on my lap” as sort of a semi-proposition directed to me at a Christmas buffet by a slightly intoxicated Greg Cook. I was a kid when he was famous, but he was famous locally. He seemed perplexed that Mr. Q didn’t react to his name when he offered his hand, but I told him a family friend had one of his paintings in his office when he was alive, and that I admired it, so it was clear *I* knew who he was. I’m not sure anyone here will recognize the name. We talked to him after his guests left and it was great fun for me to hear some of his stories.

  62. 62.

    SFBayAreaGal

    I was 13 when the first moon walk occurred.

    My mom was the one who collected everything she could that was related to the space race. She was also a big sci-fi fan since she was 12 years old. She was the one that got me hooked on sci-fi and anything to do with us going into space.

    She always wanted to be an astronaut. She told me if a spaceship landed and an alien asked her if she would like to see the universe she would hop on board.

    I believe at this moment she is out there flying among the stars and planets.

  66. 66.

    a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)

    @Omnes Omnibus: The same. He’d been a local college star QB before that, and he was an art major. Mr. Q – musician, not sports fan – had never heard of him. He later was impressed when his research revealed Cook was “Joe Montana before Joe Montana,” in the words of Bill Walsh, who was Offensive Coordinator with the Bengals. Cook tore his rotator cuff and it was long before that was an easy surgical repair. But Walsh developed the game he used in SF with Montana at the Bengals with Cook.

    I did really like his Bengal tiger painting that our friend had in his office. I wonder if the sons have it still – I’d love to buy it.

  69. 69.

    Aleta

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    All of the Original Seven are gone now, with John Glenn’s passing last month. Armstrong is gone, but Aldrin and Collins are still with us.

    Also here is Johnny Young. His record is amazing. Famous as a Navy test pilot before becoming an astronaut. (from wiki) 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.” “In 1965, Young flew on the first manned Gemini mission, and commanded another Gemini mission the next year. In 1969, he became the first person to orbit the Moon alone during Apollo 10. He drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle on the Moon’s surface during Apollo 16, and is one of only three people to have flown to the Moon twice. He also commanded two Space Shuttle flights, including its first launch in 1981, and served as Chief of the Astronaut Office from 1974–1987.” I heard him speak once and was lucky to meet him. He showed us a moon rock and was very kind. After retiring from NASA he continued to work hard to keep the manned space program from being shut down.

  72. 72.

    Aleta

    @Aleta: I forgot to mention (again from wiki) “(Johnny Young) had a central role in rescuing the Apollo 13 crew by participating in the team that developed procedures to stretch the Lunar Module consumables and reactivate the Command Module systems prior to re-entry.

    Truly amazing career, a lot more of it is online.

  76. 76.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Adam L Silverman: Did not know that! Cool! He was a very down to earth sort of General officer, soldier’s soldier, that sort of thing. Imposed something called “Octofoil Thursdays” on the 9th ID (MTZ) when I was in 9th DIVARTY. Everyone had to unass the offices and motor holes on Thursdays at 1530 and go home to the family.

  77. 77.

    prostratedragon

    Aha, thought I remembered the touchdown at night. I’d just graduated high school, so naturally had to seem blase; in reality was pretty excited.

    Them folks been walking, walking
    They been walking on the moon.
    If you wake up now,
    It won’t be too soon.

    Sun Ra, “Walking on the Moon”

    Godspeed, Capt. Cernan.

    (And yes, Hidden Figures is terrific.)

  80. 80.

    Davebo

    Gene lived just down the street from me when my late wife and I were introduced by a neighbor. He was a gracious gentleman to say the least. I shouldn’t be but I’m shocked he’s gone. He was the healthiest “older gentleman” I’d ever met and so happy to share some fabulous stories.

    Goodnight Gene. The moonlight will look well on you.

  82. 82.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @SFBayAreaGal: Yeah, I did two tours at Lewis, both in the 9th ID (MTZ). 3rd Bde, 9th Signal, Division Staff, DIVARTY, 83-87 and 88-90, with a break for Korea in between.

  85. 85.

    DirkReinecke

    Well, not to make anyone feel old or anything, but my dad was 17 when Apollo 11 landed…

  86. 86.

    John Waldron

    I was stationed at Oak Harbor NAS, Whidbey Island, WA watching Neil Armstrong take his first steps on the moon. I was attached to VA 165 and we had recently returned from an overseas tour on board the USS Ranger CVA 61. The TV room was crowded and smoke filled and the TV reception black and white and somewhat blurry; all us sailors yelled in approval and then made our way to the local bars downtown Oak Harbor to celebrate.

    However I want to bring up a different point of view that might rain on some people’s parade. I never cared for the “Right Stuff” history as I view it as typical white male history full of gloss over controversies and “hero worship.” Rarely is there a discussion or any detail accounting of women and African-American and other minorities and how they were disparaged and denied access to the space program. Why even John Glenn stated that women were inherently inferior to men for space flight (even though testing had proven otherwise and was known at that time). And so I see the Right Stuff like so much of our history as just a confirmation that American history is really about white males and damn it if someone like a black person, Martin Luther King, President Obama, Prince, Michael Jackson, Mohamed Ali comes along and distorts that picture.

  88. 88.

    JustRuss

    @Another Scott:

    We saw it live on a neighbor’s B&W set – I was 7. It was really exciting, but spoiled a little by how poor the picture was.

    I was 7 too. I was so excited, because we were visiting my mom’s cousin at the time and he had A COLOR TV! Then the broadcast started, and it was in black and white! I was soooo disappointed.

  89. 89.

    Navy Vet, American Legion Chaplain

    Captain Cernan, Fair Winds and Following Seas. rest easy Sir. We have the watch!

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