How many men have walked on the Moon and how many of them are still alive?
In July 1969, the first men walked on the Moon and I watched it live on television. The previous year, the film “2001: A Space Odyssey” was released which portrayed a community on the Moon at the turn of the century. At that time, we assumed that there would be a growing programme of lunar landings with a developing colony on the surface.
Five decades later, we see nothing of that. Indeed the last time that anyone walked on the Moon was 11-14 December 1972 and we have no clear timetable for humans to return which makes those who went there between 1969-1972 all the more special.
NASA assigned 32 American astronauts to the Apollo lunar landing programme, and 24, flying on nine missions between December 1968 and December 1972, orbited the Moon. During six two-man landing missions 12 astronauts walked on the lunar surface, and six of those drove Lunar Roving Vehicles. Three flew to the Moon twice, one orbiting both times and two landing once apiece. Apart from these 24 men, no human being has gone beyond low Earth orbit.
So, only 12 men have ever walked on the Moon and a mere four of them are still alive today – a rare breed indeed.