Canceled Apollo missions planning their own circumlunar flight for December to upstage the Americans once again (see Zond program). McDivitt's crew—who had grown accustomed to working with LM-3 and preparing for its flight—was kept on the D mission which now became Apollo 9, while Borman's crew would fly the CSM lunar orbit mission on Apollo 8, and the E mission was canceled. The swap of crews was also decisive in who would be the first man to walk on the Moon. Pete Conrad was backup Commander for McDivitt's crew, and by the process of crew rotation, would have been in line for Commander
Apollo 17 the second Apollo 17 EVA. The orange soil then becomes the major driver of the plot of the rest of the story. The 2005 novel "Tyrannosaur Canyon" by Douglas Preston opens with a depiction of the Apollo 17 moonwalks using quotes taken from the official mission transcript. Additionally, there have been fictional astronauts in film, literature and television who have been described as "the last man to walk on the Moon," implying they were crew members on Apollo 17. One such character was Steve Austin in the television series "The Six Million Dollar Man". In the 1972 novel "Cyborg", upon