These Are the 12 People Who Walked on the Moon

Edgar D. Mitchell was the sixth man to walk on the moon, serving as lunar module pilot for Apollo 14. While on the moon, Mitchell and spacecraft commander Alan Shepard traversed the hilly Fra Mauro area of the lunar surface, setting up and activating scientific equipment and experiments, while collecting about 100 pounds of rocks and soil.

Even before his moon journey, Mitchell had distinguished himself at NASA for helping to develop procedures to safely return the spacecraft and the crew from the disabled Apollo 13 mission in 1970, after the spaceship had been damaged by an oxygen tank explosion. For his work, Mitchell received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

After he left NASA, Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, a foundation created to explore the nature of consciousness. He also co-founded the Association of Space Explorers, an organization of those who share the wonder of space travel. Mitchell is the author of “Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science” and “The Way of the Explorer.”

David R. Scott was the first astronaut to drive on the moon. He was the spacecraft commander for Apollo 15, and he and lunar module pilot James B. Irwin were the first astronauts to probe the moon’s Hadley Rille and Apennine Mountain regions. While on the moon, Scott proved the gravitational theory put forth by Galileo — that all things should fall at the same rate, regardless of how heavy they are — by dropping a hammer and a feather simultaneously and showing that both objects hit the lunar surface at the same time. Scott first flew into space in 1966 on Gemini VIII with Neil Armstrong. That mission that was noteworthy as the first successful docking of two vehicles in space.

Three years after the Gemini mission, Scott served as command module pilot for Apollo 9, whose mission yielded vital information about operational performance of lunar module propulsion and life-support systems.

Air Force colonel James B. Irwin was the lunar module pilot for Apollo 15. He and spacecraft commander David R. Scott were the first astronauts to explore the moon’s Hadley Rille and Apennine Mountain regions. Their lunar module, dubbed the “Falcon,” probed the lunar surface for more than 66 hours. Their activities were televised in color using a camera that was operated from the mission control center in Houston.

Irwin resigned from NASA and the Air Force in 1972 and formed a religious organization, the High Flight Foundation.

John W. Young, spacecraft commander of Apollo 16, had the most space flights of any moon walker with six. On Apollo 16, he and Charles M. Duke drove over 16 miles on three separate trips on the rugged terrain of the lunar highlands and gathered 213 pounds of rocks.

Young had already distinguished himself with two trips on Gemini missions and as the command module pilot of Apollo 10. He would burnish his astronaut credentials as the space flight commander of the first space shuttle in 1981 and flew a second shuttle mission two years later. All totaled, Young logged 835 hours in space.

Charles M. Duke was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 16 and one of just four moon walkers still with us. He and spacecraft commander John W. Young led the first scientific expedition to the rugged Descartes region of the moon, the roughest surface the astronauts had yet encountered on the lunar surface, where they did surveys, sampled materials, and inspected surface features. The two astronauts logged 20 hours and 15 minutes in extravehicular activities and collected about 213 pounds of rock and soil samples.

After his time at NASA, Duke started a successful investment business. He then devoted his energies to his Christian ministry.