All of the potential answers were U.S. Astronauts, but only one has the world record time in Lunar Orbit. Let’s take a look at the possible responses:
Jim Lovell – Lovell was the only person to ever fly to the moon twice but never walk on it. On Apollo 8 he orbited the moon 10 times (about 20 hours total) with fellow crew members Bill Anders and Frank Borman. He also flew to the moon on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, which technically never orbited the moon, but swung around it and returned immediately to Earth.
John Glenn – Glenn flew in the Mercury program (Mercury-Atlas 6, “Friendship 7” launched Feb 20 1962) and was the first U.S. Astronaut to orbit the Earth. Glenn also flew a Space Shuttle mission (STS-95 Discovery, launched Oct 29 1998). But contrary to what some believe, he never flew to the moon.
Ron Evans Apollo 17 Spacewalk during the return to the Earth (image credit: NASA as17-152-23391)
Ron Evans – The Apollo 17 Command Module Pilot is the winner and holds the record of more time spent in lunar orbit than anyone else – 148 hours. He was also the last person to ever perform a deep-space EVA.
Neil Armstrong – The Apollo 11 astronaut was the first man to walk on the moon, but that crew didn’t spend much time in Lunar orbit – only 30 orbits lasting less than 60 hours.
Space Race Leadership 