Apollo 17 kept astronauts on the Moon's surface for the longest time, about 75 hours.
Commander Eugene Cernan and lunar module pilot Harrison Schmitt landed in the Taurus–Littrow valley on 11 December 1972. They completed three lunar excursions and spent roughly three days conducting geological fieldwork, collecting samples, and deploying experiments. Command module pilot Ronald Evans remained in lunar orbit aboard America.
Apollo 17's extended surface stay was possible because the mission carried improved life-support capacity, a lunar roving vehicle, and equipment shaped by lessons from earlier landings. The crew traveled farther from the lander than previous astronauts and examined both valley-floor material and mountainous terrain.
Apollo 17 was also the final mission of the Apollo lunar-landing program. Cernan became the last person to leave the lunar surface, but the mission's surface-duration record is a separate fact from the identity of the final moonwalker.