A 46-year lunar feat: we tell you what happened to the 'other' astronauts stepped onto the Moon

While the famous Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin were the first men to set foot on the lunar soil, contrary to what many people believe, they were not alone.

The Apollo 11 mission registered its feat in history, by allowing the first specimens of the human race succeed in setting foot on the moon. However, the Apollo Program had a total of 22 missions, which, succeeding the pioneers Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, allowed to step on the lunar soil to ten men.

On the anniversary of the first man on the moon, we tell you what happened to the lives of others the astronauts trod.

Charles Conrad: member of the Apollo 12 mission, was the third man to walk on the moon. He left NASA in 1973 and, during the 1990s, he worked as a test pilot for the Delta Clipper experimental project, a prototype unmanned spacecraft. He also founded and directed the company Universal Space Lines, until a motorcycle accident ended his life, July 8, 1999.

Alan Bean: member of the Apollo 12 mission, was the fourth man to walk on the moon. He traced the skies one last time with the Skylab 3, 1973, mission to finally retiring in 1981. He did not take long for devoting himself to his great passion, painting, specializing in portraits of lunar landscapes. Sometime in his new artistic phase, Bean noticed that patches of his spacesuit, jealously preserved, still contained moon dust, which today added in very low amounts in their works, making them unique on Earth.

Alan Shepard: besides being the fifth man on lunar soil, as part of the Apollo 14 mission, Shepard was the second person and the first American to fly in space in 1961. After retiring from NASA in 1974, was dedicated to leading several companies, including his own, which made umbrella. The July 21, 1998, he died of a picture of leukemia.

Edgar Mitchell: The sixth man to walk on the Moon also was a member of the Apollo 14 mission, although their fate, after retiring from NASA in 1972, was somewhat picturesque. In addition to lock in a long and complex trial, when he tried to auction a camera of space travel with which it had been (and was finally returned to NASA), he gave an abrupt turn toward vocational parapsychology. As noted, during its return to Earth, he had a mystical experience that changed him forever. He worked in ESP experiments, the results came to be published in the Journal of Parapsychology. Later, he founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which was dedicated to the study and research of the expansion of consciousness and spirituality. Today he is a director of the Institute for Security and Cooperation in Space, a foundation that advocates in pursuit of non development of space weapons.

David Scott, the seventh man on the moon traveled with Apollo 15 mission in 1975, he was appointed director of the Flight Research Center at NASA, serving until October 1977. Thereafter, he was active in projects related to aerospace work.

James Irwin: the Apollo 15 mission allowed outside human eighth on the moon. He left NASA and the Air Force in 1972 to give birth to the Christian Foundation High Flight, with which he promoted religious messages, including "Jesus walking on earth is more important than man walking on the moon 'stands . In 1973, Irwin began a series of expeditions in Turkish territory, looking for traces of Noah's Ark. It was the first of the 12 lunar astronauts died in 1991, by a heart attack.

John Young: member of the Apollo 16 mission, the ninth man on the moon was one of the most experienced pilots of NASA and served as Chief of the Astronaut Office at NASA, the highest position you can inhale a astronaut in activity from 1974 to 1987. After 42 years of uninterrupted work, he retired from the space agency in December 2004.

Charles Duke: the tenth man astronaut in succession with one foot on the moon, reached its destination in the Apollo 16 mission Once retired NASA dealt with conduct various businesses and was spiritual encouragement for many inmates, to Christian through talks in prisons. Today he lives in Texas and is chairman of the board of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

Eugene Cernan: although it was the eleventh and penultimate man on the moon, was also the last man to leave, being the last one entered the lunar module during the final mission, to return home. he retired in 1976 and went into business. In 1999, he published a book entitled The Last Man on the Moon. In 2010, with Neil Armstrong, he criticized the cancellation of NASA's lunar program.

Harrison Schmitt landed on the moon on Apollo 17 and was the twelfth man underfoot. After retiring in 1975, he ran for senator from New Mexico by the Republican Party and remained in political activity between 1977 and 1983. Today, he is an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and is linked to various initiatives proposed use lunar geological resources.

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