Ronald Evans (astronaut) - Wikipedia

Ronald Ellwin Evans Jr. (November 10, 1933 – April 7, 1990), (Capt, USN), was an American naval officer and aviator, electrical engineer, aeronautical engineer, NASA astronaut and, of the 24 astronauts to have flown to the Moon, one of 12 people to have flown to the Moon without landing on it.

Evans was selected as an astronaut by NASA as part of Astronaut Group 5 in 1966 and made his only flight into space as Command Module Pilot aboard Apollo 17 in December, 1972, the last crewed mission to the Moon, with Commander Eugene Cernan and Lunar Module Pilot Harrison Schmitt. During the flight, Evans and five mice orbited the Moon a record 75 times[1] as his two crewmates descended to the surface. He is the last person to orbit the Moon alone and, at 148 hours, holds the record for the most time spent in lunar orbit. In 1975 Evans served as backup Command Module Pilot for the Apollo–Soyuz Test Project mission.

During Apollo 17's return flight to Earth, Evans performed an extravehicular activity to retrieve film cassettes from the exterior of the spacecraft, the command and service module. It was the third "deep space" EVA, and is the spacewalk performed at the greatest distance from any planetary body. As of 2019, it remains one of only three deep space EVAs, all made during the Apollo program's J-missions.[2] It was also the final spacewalk of the Apollo program.