Ronald Evans (astronaut) Ronald Evans (astronaut) Ronald Ellwin Evans Jr. (November 10, 1933 – April 7, 1990), (Capt, USN), was an American naval officer and aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, and NASA astronaut, also one of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon. Evans was selected as an astronaut by NASA as part of Astronaut Group 5 in 1966 and made his first and only flight into space as Command Module Pilot aboard Apollo 17 in 1972, the last manned mission to the Moon to date, with Commander Eugene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt. During the flight, he orbited
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