Ronald Evans was one of the 19 astronauts selected by NASA in April 1966. He served as a member of the astronaut support crews for the Apollo 7 and Apollo 11 flights, and as backup Command Module Pilot for Apollo 14. Evans’ first and only space flight was as Command Module Pilot of Apollo 17, the last scheduled U.S. manned mission to the Moon. He was accompanied by Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. While Cernan and Schmitt landed and worked on the Moon in the Taurus–Littrow valley, Evans remained in lunar orbit on board the Command Module America, completing assigned work tasks which required visual geological observations, hand-held photography of specific targets, and the control of cameras and other highly sophisticated scientific equipment carried in the service module’s SIM bay. On the way back to Earth, Ronald Evans completed a one-hour, six-minute extravehicular activity, successfully retrieving three camera cassettes and completing a personal inspection of the equipment bay area. He logged 301 hours and 51 minutes in space, 1 hour and 6 minutes of which were spent in extravehicular activity. He holds the record of most time spent in lunar orbit: six days and four hours (148 hours).

Ronald Evans was later backup Command Module Pilot for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission. Evans retired from the U.S. Navy as Captain on April 30, 1976, with 21 years of service, and remained active as a NASA astronaut involved in the development of NASA’s Space Shuttle program. He served as a member of the operations and training group within the Astronaut Office, responsible for launch and ascent phases of the Space Shuttle flight program. Ronald Evans retired from NASA in March 1977 to pursue a career in the coal industry. Later he worked with Western American Energy Corporation in Scottsdale, Arizona and was Director of Space Systems Marketing for Sperry Flight Systems. He died of a heart attack in his sleep in Scottsdale, Arizona, on April 7, 1990, and was survived by his widow Jan; his daughter, Jaime D. Evans (born August 21, 1959); and his son, Jon P. Evans (born October 9, 1961).