The 12 members of the most exclusive club in human history had many things in common.
All came from a highly technical background and all but one studied aeronautical or astronautical engineering. Growing up, many had been Boy Scouts and even more were active members of their University fraternities. They all went on to study for further degrees – many at military test pilot schools – and almost all of them saw active service in cold war skies, often flying nuclear weapons behind enemy lines.
These high-risk professions often claimed the lives of those to the left and right of them and frequently it was only luck that kept them alive long enough to apply to Nasa.
We might expect such parallel lives in men picked through a selection process devised to seek out "the right stuff". But despite the similarities in their CVs, no two men were from the same mould, as became evident in the years after Apollo.
First: Neil Armstrong, commander Apollo 11
Trips into space: Two – Gemini VIII, Apollo 11
Time spent on the moon: 21 hours 31 minutes 20 seconds
Most famous for: Being the first man to set foot on the moon
Neil Armstrong was born in Ohio in 1930. His path to the moon began in 1949 while he was studying aerospace engineering, when he was called up by the US Navy. He flew 78 combat missions in Korea before returning to finish his studies. Armstrong became a test pilot in 1955 and then joined Nasa in 1962 as part of its second astronaut intake. He had only spent 10 hours in space when he was selected as commander on the Apollo 11 lunar mission.
In the summer of 1969 he became the first man to walk on the moon.
Following Apollo 11 Armstrong announced that he did not plan to fly in space again. He left Nasa in August 1971 and taught for eight years at the University of Cincinnati. During the 1980s he entered the world of business and became a spokesperson for Chrysler as well as serving on the boards of a number of companies. His authorised biography First Man was published in 2005, setting straight many of the rumours and myths that had emerged over the decades.
Second: Buzz Aldrin, lunar module pilot Apollo 11
Flights into space: Two – Gemini XII, Apollo 11
Time on the moon: 21h 31m 20s
Most famous for: Being the principal storyteller for mankind's first landing on the moon
Buzz Aldrin was born in 1930 in New Jersey. His father was an aviation pioneer and instilled in him a lifelong love of flying. He went on to join the US Air Force, flying 66 combat missions in Korea and carrying nuclear weapons under his wing during the cold war. Unlike the other astronaut candidates Aldrin was not a test pilot and believed his only chance of being selected was to study the emerging field of orbital rendezvous.
It worked and in 1963 he joined Nasa's third intake of astronauts. He was soon known affectionately as Dr Rendezvous. Twists of fate and a talent for working problems through propelled him onto the crew for Apollo 11 and in July 1969 he co-piloted the first landing on the moon.
Aldrin didn't enjoy the limelight that followed and later admitted he would have preferred to put his scientific talents to greater use on a later, less historic flight. Alcoholism and depression plagued the next 15 years of his life. But in the mid-1980s he returned to orbital mechanics, devising what became known as the Aldrin cycler, a spacecraft trajectory that he believes could carry humans to Mars.
Aldrin remains a tireless promoter of human space exploration.
• This segment was amended on 13 July 2009. The original listed Aldrin's first space flight as Apollo 8. This has been corrected.
Third: Pete Conrad, commander Apollo 12
Number of spaceflights: Four – Gemini 5, 11, Apollo 12, Skylab 4
Time spent on the moon: 31h 31m 12s
Most famous for: His first words on the moon – "That might have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me"
Charles 'Pete' Conrad was born in 1930 in Pennsylvania. As a student he battled dyslexia, but was obsessed with flying and obtained his pilot's licence before leaving high school. After graduating in aeronautical engineering from Princeton, he joined the US Navy and became a flight instructor. He was rejected by Nasa at his first attempt in 1959 because he rebelled against the barrage of medical tests, but was admitted after his second try in 1962.
By the time he flew to the moon as the commander of Apollo 12, Conrad was one of Nasa's most experienced astronauts. He returned to space on Skylab 2, spending 28 days in orbit in 1973.
Beyond Nasa, Conrad entered the aerospace industry and worked for a number of companies, including McDonnell Douglas. He died on 8 July 1999 in a motorcycle crash and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.
Fourth: Alan Bean, lunar module pilot Apollo 12
Flights into space: Two – Apollo 12, Skylab 3
Time spent on the moon: 31h 31m 12s
Most famous for: Being the only painter to have visited another world
Alan Bean was born in 1932 in Texas. From an early age he was fascinated by aircraft, filling his bedroom with models and dreaming of fictional heroes like Buck Rogers. Spurred on by his mother, he won a university scholarship to study aeronautical engineering and went on to become a naval aviator, a job he considered the coolest in the world until he saw Al Sheppard flying in a rocket. The event fuelled Bean's ambition to become an astronaut and ultimately catapulted him into Nasa on his second attempt in 1963.
He considered himself to be one of the more fearful astronauts, but luck and his good friend Pete Conrad intervened and plucked him from obscurity to fly to the moon on Apollo 12. He stayed on at Nasa after Apollo and returned to space on the Skylab 3 mission, spending almost two months in orbit in 1973.
Bean retired from Nasa in 1981 and has devoted himself to painting ever since. Looking back on his Apollo days he says he feels lucky. "Someone had to go, and they happened to pick me."
Fifth: Alan Shepard, commander Apollo 14
Flights into space: Two – Freedom 7, Apollo 14
Time spent on the moon: 1d 9h 30m 29s
Most famous for: Being the first American to fly into space and the first man to play golf on the moon
Alan Shepard was born in November 1923. He became the second person to fly into space on 5 May 1961, less than a month after Yuri Gagarin's historic flight. Unlike Gagarin, who parachuted the last few thousand feet to Earth as planned, Shepard rode his craft right back to the surface and splashed down in the Pacific, technically making him the first man to fly all the way into space and back.
As a US Navy test pilot he'd logged over 8,000 hours of flying time, and was selected as one of Nasa's original Mercury 7 astronauts in 1959. Following America's first historic manned spaceflight, Shepard was diagnosed with Meniere's disease which removed him from flight status for several years. Corrective surgery eventually cleared him to fly on Apollo 14 in 1971. At the age of 47, he became the oldest astronaut to step onto the moon.
Shepard retired from Nasa in August 1971 and served on the boards of several corporations. After a two-year battle with leukaemia he died on 21 July 1998.
Sixth: Edgar Mitchell, lunar module pilot Apollo 14
Flights into space: One – Apollo 14
Time spent on the moon: 1d 9h 30m 29s
Most famous for: Throwing the first 'javelin' on the moon. On the way back from the moon, he conducted his own research into consciousness and ESP
Edgar Mitchell was born in Texas in 1930. When he was a child, a barnstormer landed on his parent's farm and took him up for a ride. The sense of freedom he felt on that first flight spurred him on to gain his own pilot's licence by the age of 14.
Mitchell's attention turned to space after the launch of Sputnik 1 in 1957 and he was seconded from the Navy to Nasa in 1966. Serving as backup pilot for Apollo 10, he later was assigned to the mission scheduled as Apollo 13, but which got switched to Apollo 14 at the last minute – winning him a walk on the moon. Of this experience he says he found the lunar surface a welcoming place, and in his exhilaration at first stepping onto the surface he joked: "I think they put champagne in the water."
It was on the way back that his life changed when he had an epiphany that he describes as "bliss – almost like being in love". The experience inspired him, after retiring from Nasa in 1972, to set up the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which conducts and supports research into areas that more mainstream scientists do not entertain, such as psychic events.
Seventh: David Scott, commander Apollo 15
Flights into space: Three – Gemini VIII, Apollo 9, Apollo 15
Time spent on the moon: 2d 18h 53s
Most famous for: Driving the first lunar rover on the moon; dropping a hammer and a feather simultaneously on the moon to prove a theory of Galileo's
David Scott was born in Texas in June 1932. At the age of three, after seeing his father flying a Jenny biplane in formation, he became hooked on flight. Pushed hard by his father he won a scholarship to West Point and distinguished himself in 1954 by finishing 5th out of 644 students. He elected to join the US Air Force, flying cold war fighter jet missions over Europe and later studying at MIT.
He applied to Nasa in 1966 and joined group three. During the next five years he flew the most missions of this group. In 1971 he became the seventh man on the moon when he commanded the first full science expedition, driving the first rover vehicle into the lunar highlands.
On returning to Earth Scott hoped his mission had inspired those who watched from Earth – reminding us at his press conference that "the mind is a fire to be ignited, not a vessel to be filled". Through his work on the film sets of Apollo 13 and other movies he has continued to ignite fires in millions more minds ever since.
Eighth: Jim Irwin, lunar module pilot Apollo 15
Flights into space: One – Apollo 15
Time spent on the moon: 2d 18h 54m 53s
Most famous for: Founding his High Flight Ministry and searching for Noah's Ark
James Irwin was born in March 1930 in Pennsylvania. He joined the US Air Force after university and graduated from the prestigious Aerospace Research Pilot School in 1963. Despite being involved in a plane crash in 1961 in which he almost lost a leg, Irwin qualified as an astronaut in 1966 and went on to land on the moon with Dave Scott in 1971.
Due to long working hours and the dehydration Irwin suffered on this mission he had a minor heart attack near the end of the day they left the moon. Resting during the return flight he made a good recovery, but he suffered a bigger heart attack a few months later. On the moon Irwin says he felt God's presence and after retiring from Nasa in 1972 he founded his High Flight Ministry.
In 1991, Jim Irwin suffered a third and fatal heart attack near his home in Colorado, becoming the first of the moon walkers to pass away.
Ninth: John Young, commander Apollo 16
Flights into space: Six: Gemini 3, Gemini 10, Apollo 10, Apollo 16, STS-1, STS-9
Time spent on the moon: 2d 23h 02m 13s
Most famous for: Flying more spacecraft than anyone else in history; having the lowest heart rate during a Saturn V launch – just 70 beats per minute
John Young was born in California in September 1930. As a child, he avidly read books about space and idolised the likes of Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon. He holds the distinction of being the most experienced astronaut of the 20th century having flown two Gemini missions in Earth orbit and flown twice to the moon, although he only landed once, on Apollo 16. He almost flew to the moon a third time when Gene Cernan suffered a sporting injury a few months before Apollo 17.
After Apollo, he went on to command the first space shuttle flight to orbit the Earth in 1981 and flew a second shuttle mission in 1983. Including the lunar rover he has 'piloted' a record five different types of spacecraft. Despite his distinguished career, Young was critical of Nasa after the Challenger Disaster in 1986 and was subsequently removed from active astronaut status. But he stayed on until he retired at the age of 74 and still supports human spaceflight operations there today.
Of the moon he says that every time he looks at it he still can't believe we're not going back.
Tenth: Charlie Duke, lunar module pilot Apollo 16
Flights into space: One – Apollo 16
Time spent on the moon: 2d 23h 02m 13s
Most famous for: Being Capcom on Apollo 11 and declaring "Roger Tranquility, we copy you down. You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue ... we're breathing again"
Charlie Duke was born in October 1935 in North Carolina. As a boy he loved Wild West films, but he always saw himself as a flying ace – craving the speed. He joined the Air Force in 1957 and flew dangerous cold war sorties over Europe before becoming a research test pilot, flying the legendary F-104 Starfighter to the edge of space. In April 1966 he was selected for Nasa's fifth group of astronauts and, after key mission control roles supporting Apollos 10, 11 and 13, he made his one and only spaceflight on Apollo 16 in 1972, becoming the youngest man to walk on the moon at the age of 36.
Duke retired from Nasa in 1976 and became a successful businessman before realising that his path in life led in another direction. His turning point came at a bible study class near his home in Texas, where Duke opened his mind to Christianity. He has devoted his life since to spreading the teachings of Jesus. Of Apollo, Duke says "my walk on the moon only lasted three days but his walk with God is forever."
Eleventh: Gene Cernan, commander Apollo 17
Flights into space: Three – Gemini 9, Apollo 10, Apollo 17
Time spent on moon: 3d 02h 59m 40s
Most famous for: Being the last man to stand on the moon, in December 1972
Eugene Cernan was born in Chicago in March 1934. As a child he was fascinated by the black-and-white Movietone newsreels that played in the cinema's during the second world war. He loved the reports about brave US pilots and he knew he wanted to join their ranks. He trained as a fighter pilot at Miramar, later known as the Top Gun School.
But when Al Shepard became the first American in space Cernan realised he had to be an astronaut. He joined Nasa in its third astronaut intake in 1963 to work on Gemini and Apollo. On his Gemini flight Cernan performed a difficult and pioneering spacewalk during which he became dangerously overheated. But his greatest challenge came in 1972 when he commanded Apollo 17, becoming the last person to walk on the moon (since he was the last to re-enter the module).
He retired from Nasa in 1976 after the Apollo-Soyuz test programme and went into private business. On his place in history he says: "Here I am at the turn of the millennium and I'm still the last man to have walked on the moon, [it's] somewhat disappointing. It says more about what we have not done than about what we have done."
• This item was amended 20 July 2009. The original said that Gene Cernan's flights included Gemini 12. Rather, he was on reserve for that mission. This has been corrected.
Twelve: Harrison Schmitt, lunar module pilot Apollo 17
Flights into space: 1 – Apollo 17
Time spent on the moon: 3d 02h 59m 40s
Most famous for: Being the only professional geologist to visit the moon; taking the most reproduced photograph in human history – the "Blue Marble" picture of Earth; singing "I was strolling on the moon one day ..."
Harrison "Jack" Schmitt was born in New Mexico in July 1935. He is the only man to have walked on the moon but never served in the military. Following in his father's footsteps he studied geology and then went on to work at the US Geological Survey's Astrogeology Centre at Flagstaff, Arizona.
When Nasa began to recruit "scientist astronauts" in 1964, Schmitt was one of the first to be admitted. From the start, the scientist astronauts were seen as outsiders who were non-essential in the race to the moon. But Schmitt worked tirelessly to enthuse the other astronauts about geology and got his own chance to practise lunar fieldwork on his Apollo 17 flight in 1972.
He resigned from Nasa in 1975 to run for election as a senator for New Mexico, winning and serving a single term before his defeat in 1982. Since then he has worked as a consultant in business, geology and space exploration. He is a persistent advocate of returning to the lunar surface, declaring: "We owe the future of humankind another walk on the moon."