18 July

1997: On 18 July 1997, Gene Shoemaker died.

Shoemaker was an American planetary geologist. Shoemaker initiated and promoted the geology studies of American astronauts that made them able scientific observers and reporters during the Moon landings. He was a major investigator of the imaging by unmanned Ranger and Surveyor satellites which, before any Apollo landing, revealed the nature of the Moon's cover of soil and broken rock that he named the 'regolith'.

He co-discovered Comet P/Shoemaker-Levy 9 which collided with Jupiter in 1994, the first observed collision of two Solar System bodies.

In tribute, a small cask of his ashes was launched in a memorial capsule aboard Lunar Prospector to the Moon.