Czechmatediary

Remember when I said in one of my recent posts that without Czechs people would be still living in caves? Here is yet another example. Eugene Cernan, the son of a Slovak father (from Kysuc) and a Czech mother (from Pisek), was a crew member of 2 of the most historical trips to the Moon: Apollo 10 (1969) and Apollo 17 (1972). Both times Eugene carried the Czechoslovak flag with him - not by accident.

Cernan is known as the “last man on the moon” as he was the last man of the three astronauts - Neil Armstrong being the first one - to step onto the Moon surface. In one of his interviews with the Czech press Cernan said:” As you know I am an American and I am very proud of it; but I am also very proud of my Czech and Slovak roots.”

PS: it would be interested to know if he speaks Czech/Slovak…

Eugene Cernan actually wrote book about his adventures with NASA called “The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America’s Race in Space” and it is written in Czech…just kidding!!

CZ: Pamatujete is, kdyz jsem v jednom z mych clanku konstatovala, ze lide by porad zili v jeskynich, kdyby nebylo Cechu? Tak tady mate dalsi dukaz. Eugene Cernan, syn ceske matky (z Pisku) a slovenskeho otce (z Kysuc), byl clenem posadky dvou legendarnich letu kosmickych lodi Apolla - a to Apolla 10 (v roce 1969) a Apolla 17 (1972). Co vas ale mile prekvapi, ze na obouch techto legendarnich vypravach ssebou mel take Ceskoslovenskou vlajku - a to ne nahodou - byla to pripominka toho, ze i kdyz je velmi hrdy byt Americanem, je take hrdy na sve ceskoslovenske koreny. Cernan je znamy pod jmenem “posledni clovek na mesici”, protoze byl poslednim ze 3 clenu posadky - Neil Armstrong byl prvni - kdo si stoupnul na povrch Mesice. Eugene sepsal sve vzpominky na NASU a milovany Mesic v knize zvane The Last Man on the Moon: Astronaut Eugene Cernan and America’s Race in Space a je napsana v cestine;))

PS: Jenom by me zajimalo, jestli Evzen umi mluvit cesky/slovensky…

Source:

http://krajane.radio.cz/cs/article_detail/1351

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Cernan