In 2009 I had a rare opportunity to shake hands with the great Apollo 10 astronauts Commander Thomas Stafford and Lunar Module pilot Eugene Cernan.
It was an honor to briefly meet the esteemed astronauts at the Charles M. Schulz Museum in Santa Rosa.
Stafford and Cernan were in Santa Rosa to kick off an exhibit “To the Moon: Snoopy Soars with NASA,” which ran from Jan. 31 to July 20, 2009.
Cernan, the last astronaut on the moon, died Monday at the age of 82 from "ongoing health issues," as his family has reported to the media.
He belonged to a special club of rare men blessed with vivid memories of having voyaged to the moon and back.
They viewed our fragile blue planet from their unique vantage points, in awe of what they witnessed.
When Cernan saw Earth from the moon he is reported to have said that he was looking out from “God’s front porch.”
According to the Santa Rosa Press Democrat, in 2009 Cernan also stated, “If we could put everybody on that spot for five minutes, the Earth would be a different place.”
During the heyday of the Apollo missions Stafford, who is now 86 years of age, and Cernan needed something to call each other, and used the Snoopy and Charlie Brown monikers for fun. They used those nicknames for their command and lunar modules as well.
Santa Rosa cartoonist Charles Schulz took off with plenty of cartoons about the moon landings, many of which were on exhibit at the museum.
Capt. Eugene Cernan was the last man to walk on the moon, and the footprints he left still remain from that voyage in December of 1972.
He also was distinguished as the second American to perform a space walk during the Gemini 9 mission in June of 1966.
Lt. General Thomas Stafford is a retired pilot, leader and scientist. He commanded the Apollo 10 mission, executing the first rendezvous around the moon. Both astronauts hoped that NASA would continue lunar exploration with more moon landings.
With Cernan's passing, we lost another great space explorer, but NASA’s future space exploration is sure to be exciting in years to come. It is hoped that there will be a sustainable long-term human presence on the moon and Mars one day.
For more information visit www.nasa.gov .
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.” She was selected “Lake County Teacher of the Year, 1998-99” by the Lake County Office of Education, and chosen as one of 10 state finalists the same year by the California Department of Education. Scavone writes the “Lake County Time Capsule” and “Living Landscape” columns for Lake County news. She lives in Middletown, Calif.