armstrong , almost as famous for his intense privacy as his historic first lunar footstep , even joined an afternoon press conference with three apollo comrades _ buzz aldrin , who landed on the moon with him and was the second man to walk on the moon ; gene cernan , who commanded the last lunar mission in december 1972 and was the last apollo astronaut on the moon ; and walter cunningham , who checked out the lunar module in earth orbit on the first manned apollo flight .