# Talk:Gene Cernan

I thought the last words spoken by Eugene Cernan on the moon were "Let’s get this mutha outta here." rather than what is quoted on the page.
See http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/articles/051003crbo_books for reference.
I'll see what others think and perhaps make the change; I think it's likely Cernan uttered both quotes so perhaps both could be included.
Thanks

I suspect the "last words" quoted are the "official" ones...  Trekphiler 00:05, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

I don't see mentioned what I've heard: Gene was last man to drive Boeing's Lunar Rover on Luna. Add it?  Trekphiler 00:05, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

The last words quoted are the real last words spoken before Cernan went up the ladder into the LM for the last time. If he said "let's get this mutha outta here" it would have been much later, just before liftoff. But as it says on the Apollo 17 wikipedia page, the "mutha" line is not on the NASA audio tapes. It's just a fun story.
I also wanted to point out a flaw in the Eugene Cernan page. It says that he wrote his daughter's initials in the dust on the moon. Not true. This is something he wished he had done, which was (unwisely) depicted in the TV series "From The Earth To The Moon" as having been a real event. See text below, from the Apollo 17 wikipedia page:
In "Le Voyage dans La Lune", Co-Executive Producer Tom Hanks gave Commander Gene Cernan a moment that he desperately wished for in real life. The episode shows Cernan carving the initials of his then 9-year-old daughter, Tracey, in the lunar dust. It was something Cernan had actually intended to do during the moon walk. However, the relentless pressure of the EVA Timeline actually prevented him from doing. (Based on a Cernan interview with reporter Dan Fiorucci in a 1999 interview conducted via satellite for a story that aired on WPHL-TV, Philadelphia)  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.6.160.146 (talk) 18:43, 9 June 2011 (UTC) 
Yes, the footage in From the Earth to the Moon was really wishy-washy and misleading as to whether or not he left her initials on the moon. However, the actress playing his daughter as an adult makes a funny face, and Gene himself sighs while talking about the schedule, so it's clear that it did not happen after-all, otherwise this would only be a happy memory. What is misleading is that they go ahead and show footage of the initials which would make viewers believe that it did happen.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:14B:4401:D5C0:E969:71C9:F2D2:472E (talk) 05:56, 17 January 2017 (UTC) 

As far as I know, he is better known without his middle name.  Should the page be moved?  Reywas92TalkSigs 21:17, 21 January 2007 (UTC)

So how did the article about Gene Cernan get to be called by his full first-middle-last name in the first place? Neil Armstrong's article is just Neil Armstrong.  Alan Bean's article is just Alan Bean. Alan Shepard's article is just Alan Shepard.
I strongly recommend that the entire article about Eugene Cernan be transferred to Eugene Cernan and that the Eugene Andrew Cernan page either be made a redirect page or deleted entirely.
I work for a planetarium that is named for Captain Cernan. I know Captain Cernan personally. Although like most everyone else, he HAS a middle name, he has never gone by Eugene Andrew Cernan. Sometimes he has gone by Eugene A. Cernan, but never the full three names.
If Wikipedia is striving for consistency -- and it should! -- then please look at every other article you have on astronauts and tell me that Captain Cernan's article should still go by "Eugene Andrew Cernan." For reasons that escape me, Wikipedia didn't follow its own policy when this article was first created. Subsequent improvements to the article were built on an article with an incorrect name. Two wrongs do not make a right!
Bart 01:08, 30 January 2007 (UTC)

You can post this at WP:RM to get a proper discussion. For the record, I would support a move back to the simple name (without the middle name), since he is better known this way and there is no need for disambiguation with other Eugene Cernans. Fram 14:13, 30 January 2007 (UTC)
I think it should be Gene Cernan like he's usually called. AFterall, Buzz Aldrin and not Edwin Aldrin is the name of that article. And Gus Grissom, not Virgil Grissom. 70.51.9.86 05:02, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
I concur with the post. --68.51.72.144 (talk) 16:24, 20 July 2009 (UTC)
According to one of his NASA bios (Personal: Born Edwin Eugene Aldrin, Jr., January 20, 1930, Montclair, New Jersey. Later, legally changed his name to "Buzz Aldrin". Married, three children (from a previous marriage).), Buzz actually had his legal name changed to Buzz. Phil Konstantin (talk) 04:59, 21 July 2009 (UTC)

Can someone make this more like the format of the other Apollo astronaut articlesPiersmasterson (talk) 16:33, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Not sure how to do this, as don't know how to add a new subject, 'format' is closest. What's with the grammatical sloppiness in the Apollo astronaut articles? Specifically, I have changed twice, things like "last person on the moon", "last people on the moon" etc to "last man on the moon". Why are we changing back to "people"? 'People' is grammatically sloppy, vague and imprecise. Language can be precise. People can refer to Men, women, children. Children can then be teenage girls, teenage boys, then baby girls, baby boys etc. So, did 2 baby girls land on the moon? They are 'people' after all. No. Be SPECIFIC. Yes, most adults know that men landed on the moon and don't even think about it, but any children hearing about the moon landings hear or read 'people', it's only when they hear male names do they make the connection that they were men. I will have to look on shuttle missions wiki articles, I would hope they would be specific, instead of saying "10 people flew to the ISS" one would hope to see "6 men and 4 women flew to the ISS". I am going to change it back to who the SPECIFIC type of human, men, man, back. Please do not change it back, unless you want the disapproval from your English teacher. Honestly. This is grade school standards folks.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 104.159.75.97 (talk) 22:12, 2 February 2019 (UTC) 

I just reverted a good faith edit, noting that Cernan was "the last Boilermaker" on the moon.  It seemed awkward, even if you included a statement explaining what that meant.  I just added a sentence mentioning that Armstrong and Cernan were both Purdue grads, but could not find a really appropriate place to add it.  I certainly didn't want a trivia section, so I dumped it at the end.  I still don't like it, but I am hoping that someone might think of a better place to add it, without creating a trivia section. LonelyBeacon (talk) 15:34, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

Isn't Neil Armstrong on Cernan's left?

Hello! This is a note to let the editors of this article know that File:Apollo 17 Cernan on moon.jpg will be appearing as picture of the day on March 14, 2011. You can view and edit the POTD blurb at Template:POTD/2011-03-14. If this article needs any attention or maintenance, it would be preferable if that could be done before its appearance on the Main Page so Wikipedia doesn't look bad. :) Thanks! howcheng  {chat} 00:38, 11 March 2011 (UTC) 

Simply said: Did Eugene 'Gene' Andrew Cernan always have had that name or did he once had another name which was changed later to the actual form? What is his birth name?
"Eugene 'Gene' Andrew Cernan [...] native of Chicago, Illinois, son of a Czech mother and a Slovak father, he received his father's name, originally spelled Ondrej Čerňan (IPA: [ˈondrɛj ˈtʃɛrɲan]). "
Does that mean: "Eugene 'Gene' Andrew Cernan (name from birth on) was [particularly] named after his father, Andrew Cernan (born Ondrej Čerňan)." ?
Or does that mean: "Eugene 'Gene' Andrew Cernan (born Ondrej Čerňan), was originally named [fully] after his father('s born name) Ondrej Čerňan." ?
It's not clear what the cited sequence means (and there's no source citation in there for that, clearifying it) - whether the astronaut had originally [by birth] received the same name like his father, who's name always was and is Ondrej Čerňan, but that the astronaut later changed his own name and adding the "Eugene"; or simply if the astronaut by birth was named after his father Eugene Andrew Cernan, who's name originally was spelled Ondrej Čerňan, but changed it after immigration to the US to Andrew Cernan, before the birth of his son, the astronaut...
The difference is whether (it is meant that) the astronaut was originally spelled "Ondrej Čerňan" (without the "Eugene"), or his father (who's name then later would have been Andrew Cernan, right?).
If the astronaut originally was born as Ondrej Čerňan, it should be clearly expressed that way; and if the astronaut's name from birth on always was Eugene 'Gene' Andrew Cernan, but that only just his father, Andrew Cernan, originally was born "Ondrej Čerňan", that should be clearified otherwise, simply by just stating like it is in other biography-articles, that Eugene 'Gene' Andrew Cernan was born to [mother's changed name] (originally spelled [mother's born name]) and Andrew Cernan (originally spelled Ondrej Čerňan) - if this would be that way, it could be clearly seen for everyone - without it must be written down anymore that unspecific - , that the son was named after his father, but not completely [otherwise this could indicate to think that either the astronaut was originally named Andrew Cernan, jr. or that his father changed his own born name Ondrej Čerňan after the birth of his son to Eugene Andrew Cernan (if he would have done it before the birth, his son's name would be Eugene Andrew Cernan, jr. - although this of course would be hypothetic, because it seems crazy to think about the possibility that one's own name changes (getting/losing a "jr.", etc.) just because someone else in your family changes his/her name to or from your own one's...)].  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.90.73.103 (talk) 17:57, 13 May 2011 (UTC) 

Hi, I've added a non-contentious sentence about Cernan's appearance on an episode of the Sky at Night back in 2007. I'm having difficulty adding the reference for this edit (in edit mode, the "Reference" section is not showing me any of the current references). I'll add the reference for my edit when I've figured out how to overcome this.Treagle (talk) 13:56, 15 August 2012 (UTC)

In the Apollo program section: the word "twice" needs to be replaced with "three times."
If Cernan is "the only person to have descended toward the Moon in the lunar lander twice" - how did Lovell and Young get to the lunar surface their second time?
Ammobox (talk) 20:22, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

 Not done You apparently misunderstand what happened in the Apollo program. Cernan was indeed the only person to have descended toward the Moon in the lunar lander twice: once on Apollo 10 (only a rehearsal, not a real landing); then again on Apollo 17. The sentence is correct as it stands. And "three times" is incorrect; he never went to the Moon a third time.
"Travel to the Moon" does not mean the same thing as "descend toward the Moon in the lunar lander."
James Lovell did not ever get to the lunar surface, despite having traveled to the Moon twice; Apollo 8 was only a lunar orbital mission (no lander was included); and his Apollo 13 mission was aborted before he could land; on that flight the spacecraft only swung around the Moon to get back home.
John Young was also on Apollo 10, but he stayed in the Command Module and did not descend in the lander with Cernan; that was done by Apollo 10 commander Thomas Stafford, who never returned to the Moon. Young only landed on the Moon once, in Apollo 16. JustinTime55 (talk) 20:52, 20 January 2016 (UTC)
Thank you Ammobox (talk) 07:03, 6 February 2016 (UTC)

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and yes, it was by definition an Unidentified Flying Object.
Why wouldn't that be on this page, like that's a pretty big thing in pop culture, and he reported it, and it was featured in a song by Daft Punk! it's out there...  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:405:4202:C7F0:8D74:35F8:AA97:DC7 (talk) 09:04, 15 September 2016 (UTC) 

mention a pilot during time of vietnam but no mention of # missions, who he killed , bombed etc?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Juror1 (talk • contribs) 07:25, 17 January 2017 (UTC) 

Once we expand the Apollo 10 section I would love to include this photo. Lots of good images on that account! Kees08 (Talk) 01:28, 16 January 2019 (UTC)

From the James McDivitt article:

When the selection of Gene Cernan to command the Apollo 17 mission was announced, McDivitt confronted Kraft over not being consulted about it, and threatened to resign unless Cernan was removed. Kraft consulted with Slayton, who gave a less than frank account of a January 1971 helicopter accident that Cernan had been involved in. Kraft then informed McDivitt that Cernan's selection stood, and McDivitt resigned, although he stayed on until the end of the Apollo 16 mission.
The above needs mentioning in Gene Cernan. What was this helicopter accident? jnestorius(talk) 12:38, 25 March 2023 (UTC)

Cernan discusses it in his autobiography. Newyorkbrad (talk) 13:15, 25 March 2023 (UTC)
I agree, I need more on this. 137.188.108.49 (talk) 20:00, 16 June 2023 (UTC)

this text.. "documentary In the Shadow of the Moon in which he said, "truth needs no defense" and "nobody can take those footsteps I made on the surface of the Moon away from me". Doesn't explain the context... when the reader scrolls down to the references, we can see it, but it might be nice to have the context in the body of the article itself. 137.188.108.49 (talk) 19:59, 16 June 2023 (UTC)