Who was the last astronaut to walk on the Moon?

Who was the last astronaut to walk on the Moon? Eugene Cernan was the last person to walk on the lunar surface.

Cernan was the commander of Apollo 17, NASA’s final crewed lunar mission, which landed in the Taurus–Littrow valley in December 1972. He and Harrison Schmitt completed three moonwalks while Command Module Pilot Ronald Evans remained in lunar orbit.

Schmitt was the twelfth and most recent person to step onto the Moon, but Cernan entered the lunar module after him and was therefore the last person to walk on it. Cernan’s final steps made him the last human to leave footprints on the Moon, a distinction that remains unchanged because no crewed lunar landing followed Apollo 17.

A common mix-up is confusing “last person to walk on the Moon” with “most recent person to step onto the Moon.” Those descriptions refer to Cernan and Schmitt respectively. Cernan died in 2017, but his record still stands.