The last person to walk on the moon was astronaut Eugene A. Cernan. He was the commander of NASA's Apollo 17 mission, which was the final Apollo lunar landing mission. Cernan left the lunar surface on December 14, 1972, making him the last human to leave footprints on the moon

. Apollo 17 was the sixth and last manned mission to the moon, and Cernan, along with Harrison Schmitt, conducted three moonwalks totaling over 22 hours on the lunar surface. Cernan famously said as he left the moon, "We leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind"

. Eugene Cernan passed away in 2017, and his record as the last person to walk on the moon stands until new crewed lunar missions, such as NASA's Artemis program, resume human exploration of the lunar surface