Of the 38 astronauts in the Apollo Space program, only 12 ever set foot on the moon. Here's the list - and below you'll find the story of their moonwalks and their moonwalk videos!  Plus a range of moon landing memorabilia and the ebst books to read about these amazing NASA astronauts.

1. Neil Armstrong
2. Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin
3. Charles "Pete" Conrad
4. Alan Bean
5. Alan Shepard
6. Edgar Mitchell
7. David Scott
8. James Irwin
9. John Young
10. Charles Duke
11. Eugene Cernan
12. Harrison Schmitt

If you missed part 1 of this story, check it out here:

As mentioned, Neil Armstrong was a crew member on the Apollo 11 and holds the distinction of being the first man to walk on the moon in July 1969. He spent 2 ½ hours on the surface of the moon.

Born in 1930, Neil Armstrong earned degrees from Purdue University and the University of Southern California. Armstrong is a Korean War veteran and served in the United States Navy as an aviator. After the war he became a test pilot. His first venture into space was on the Gemini 8 in 1966.

After the Apollo 11 flight, Neil Armstrong announced he would not fly into space again. At that point he started a new career as an aeronautical agency administrator and then professor at the University of Cincinnati.

He remained involved in the space program though and participated in the NASA investigation of the Apollo 13 and Space Shuttle Challenger disasters.

Neil Armstrong retired from NASA in 1971.

In the subsequent years he has served on the boards of many private corporations and on government committees as requested.

Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin - 2nd Man on the Moon

Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin is the second man to walk on the moon following right after mission commander Neil Armstrong on the Apollo 11 mission. Born in 1930, he had a distinguished career as an American aviator and astronaut. He piloted the Lunar Module during the historic space mission.

Buzz Aldrin was a career military man who graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point. He preferred his nickname “Buzz” which resulted from a younger sister’s mispronunciation of the word “brother” as “buzzer”. In fact, Buzz became his legal first name in 1988. He was a Second Lieutenant in the US Air Force and served as a jet fighter pilot. Aldrin served with distinction during the Korean War.

Buzz Aldrin retired from active military duty in 1972 but remained involved in the NASA program.

Charles Peter Conrad - 3rd Man on the Moon

Charles “Pete” Conrad was the third man to walk on the moon. He was the commander of the Apollo 12 mission in 1969. Born in 1930, he passed away in July, 1999. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Princeton University after which he joined the Navy.

Pete Conrad claimed the honor of being the first man to dance on the moon. He was involved in a number of NASA missions including the Gemini 5, precursor to the Apollo program, Apollos 11 and 12, and the Skylab 2 mission. His NASA career began in 1962 and his last mission was as commander of Skylab 2.

Alan Bean - 4th Man on the Moon

Alan Bean was born in 1932 in Texas. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and trained as a Navy Test Pilot. He began his space training with NASA in 1963 and eventually was chosen as the lunar pilot for Apollo 12. He was the fourth man to walk on the moon.

Alan Bean was instrumental in saving the Apollo 12 mission after the spacecraft was hit by lightning a mere 36 seconds after take-off. He performed a repair which restored telemetry and enabled the mission to continue. He was the astronaut who completed the installation of the first nuclear power generator on the moon which provided a power source on the surface.

Alan Bean also commanded the Skylab 3 in 1973 and participated in the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Retiring from the Navy in 1975 he continued to work with the NASA space program. He then resigned from NASA in 1981 and became a full-time artist.

Alan Shepard - 5th Man on the Moon

Alan Shepard was the fifth man to walk on the moon on Apollo 14 in 1971. He was supposed to have been on the ill-fated Apollo 13 which had been destroyed by fire. An ear problem kept him out of the space program for most of the 1960s and the 1970 Apollo 13 mission was to be his first space flight upon return. He decided he needed more training and so did not accept the Apollo 13 mission.

Born in 1923, Alan Shepard died in 1998. He was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and served during World War II. After the war, he completed flight training and became a carrier fighter pilot.

Alan Shepard was the first American to complete space travel in 1961 on the Freedom 7. In 1963 he became the Chief of the Astronaut Office with NASA. In 1969 he re-entered the space program after corrective surgery on his ear. He was the oldest astronaut in the program when he flew on Apollo 14. Pictures of the trip show include Shepard playing golf on the moon.

Shepard retired from the Navy and NASA in 1974.

Edgar Mitchell - Sixth Man on the Moon

Edgar Mitchell was the 6^th man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 14 space mission in 1971. This was the third NASA crewed moon landing. Born in 1930 he was a graduate of the Carnegie Institute of Technology. After graduating he became a carrier fighter pilot in the Navy while also earning advanced degrees including a doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Edgar Mitchell is known as one of the astronauts most personally touched by the experience of walking on the moon. After retiring from the Navy in 1972, he founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences. The purpose of the Institute is to study the nature of consciousness. He is also interested in studying psychic and paranormal activities.

David Scott - Seventh Man on the Moon

David Scott was the 7^th man to walk on the moon during the Apollo 15 flight in 1971. Born in 1932 in Texas, he graduated the West Point Naval Academy in 1954. Scott joined the Air Force and earned degrees in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

David Scott’s first space travel was on the Gemini 8 with Neil Armstrong. He was the command module pilot for Apollo 9 and became the last man to fly solo on a space mission. Scott was responsible for conducting scientific experiments on the moon during the Apollo 15 mission.

Now retired from the Air Force, David Scott lives a quiet life in California.

James Irwin - Eighth Man on the Moon

James Irwin was the 8^th man to walk on the moon on the Apollo 15 mission. He was born in 1930 in Pennsylvania and died in 1991. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree at the United States Naval Academy and graduate degrees from the University of Michigan.

James Irwin was a trained test pilot for the US Air Force. After joining NASA, he was selected in 1966 to join the space program. He was made a member of the Apollo 10 support crew which was a practice flight preparing for a moon landing.

On Apollo 15, James Irwin was assigned to be Lunar Module Pilot. Because he was involved in the scientific geological studies conducted on the moon, he was on the moon’s surface for slightly over 295 hours.

John Young - Ninth Man on the Moon

John Young was born in 1930 in California and was the 9^th man to walk on the moon. He was a member of the 1972 Apollo 16 crew when he earned this distinction. He had previously flown on the Apollo 10 mission in 1696 which was a lunar orbit only flight.

James Young had a distinguished career as an astronaut and flew into space a total of 6 times. He has piloted the Gemini spacecraft, the Apollo Command Module, the Lunar Module and the Space Shuttle.

James Young earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1952 after which he joined the US Navy. After a tour of duty in the Korean Seas, Young became a fighter and test pilot.

Young joined NASA in 1962.He became the Commander of Gemini 10 and is attributed with successfully completed the first dual rendezvous of spacecraft.

James Young was on the crew of the Apollo 10 and flew the first solo flight of the Command Module while the rest of the crew was flying the lunar module around the moon. He became the commander of Apollo 16 and later served as backup commander for Apollo 17.

After the Apollo program ended, James Young flew the Space Shuttle twice. He retired from NASA in 2004 after 42 years of service.

Charles Duke - Tenth Man on the Moon

Charles Duke was the 10^th man to walk on the moon during the 1972 Apollo 16 mission. Born in 1935 in North Carolina, he earned degrees from the US Naval Academy and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He joined the US Air Force and went through pilot fighter training. He was a fighter interceptor pilot in Germany for 3 years.

Charles Duke earned the rank of USAF Brigadier General before retiring from the Air Force. He was a member of the Apollo 10 support crew and was the voice of Mission Control during the Apollo 11 flight. On the Apollo 16 mission, Charles Duke was the lunar module pilot. His last Apollo program participation was as a backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 17.

Eugene Cernan - Eleventh Man on the Moon

The 11^th man to walk on the moon was Eugene Cernan in 1972 while a member of Apollo 17. He earned the title “last man on the moon” with his lunar walk having been the last person to exit the Lunar Module to the moon’s surface.

Born in 1934 in Illinois, Cernan graduated from Purdue University and then was commissioned in the United States Navy. While in the Navy he earned a graduate degree at the Navy Postgraduate School. He reached the rank of Captain before retiring.

Eugene Cernan flew into space three times on the Gemini 9A, on the Apollo 10 and on Apollo 17. He began his astronaut career with NASA in 1963 and has the distinction of being only one of 3 men who have flown to the moon twice.

In 1976 Eugene Cernan retired from NASA and military duty and entered the world of private business.

The Last Words Spoken on the Moon

The last words spoken by a man standing on the moon were Cernan’s words. As he prepared to leave the moon’s surface he said,

“As we leave the Moon at Taurus-Littrow, we leave as we came, and God willing, as we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind.

As I take these last steps from the surface for some time to come, I’d just like to record that America’s challenge of today has forged man’s destiny of tomorrow.

Godspeed the crew of Apollo Seventeen.”

Harrison Schmitt - Twelfth man on the Moon - And Last Man on the Moon

Harrison Schmitt was the 12^th and last man to roam the moon’s surface. He was a lunar module pilot on Apollo 17. Cernan was the next to last person to re-enter the Lunar Module followed by Schmidt which is why Schmidt was named the twelfth man to visit the moon.

Born in 1935 in New Mexico, Schmitt was a geologist and a civilian during his tenure as an astronaut. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology and graduate degrees from Norway’s University of Oslo and the US Harvard University.

Jack Schmitt has worked for the US Geological Survey Astrogeology Center for a while and then joined NASA. He was instrumental in assisting the program with documenting geological results from experiments conducted on the moon.

jack Schmitt resigned from NASA in 1972 and entered the political arena in 1975. He was a one term member of the US Senate representing New Mexico. He is currently the chair of the NASA Advisory Council.

by Julie-Ann Amos, professional writer, and owner of international writing agency www.ExquisiteWriting.com

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