Mitchell was one of the ground crew members who saved the Apollo 11 mission, he was the one who used the lunar rover simulator to try out strategies to bring the astronauts home
Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, pilot of the Apollo 14 lunar lander died Thursday in West Palm Beach, Florida on the eve of the 45th anniversary of that flight. He was 85 years old when he died.
Mitchell joined Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, the first American in space, in the lunar module Antares, which landed on February 5, 1971 in the Fra Mauro mountain region. Shepard and Mitchell were asked to travel to the surface of the moon to install devices on the ground and conduct a communication experiment, as well as to photograph the surface of the moon and if any phenomenon occurs in deep space - to photograph it as well. This was Mitchell's only flight.
Mitchell and Shepard also set a record as those who spent the longest time on the moon - 33 hours. They were also the first to transmit color television footage from the surface of the Moon. Mitchell also helped collect 46.3 kg of samples from the lunar soil which were then distributed to 187 scientific teams in the US and 14 in other countries.
"On behalf of the NASA family, I would like to express my condolences to the family and friends of astronaut Edgar Mitchell." Nas director said: "A. Charles Bolden. "As a member of the Apollo 14 crew, Edgar was one of the 12 men who walked on the moon and helped change the way we see our place in the universe."
Mitchell was drawn to spaceflight by President Kennedy's call to send astronauts to the moon. "After Kennedy announced the moon plan, it's like a bear climbing the mountain to see far. I have been trained for this since my early years and this is what allowed me to continue," said Mitchell in an interview for a documentary program about the history of NASA in 1997.
"For me, the stay in space was the culmination of my being, and what can I learn from it? What are we learning? It's important, because I think what we're trying to do is discover ourselves and our place in the universe, and we don't know the answer. We are still looking. "
Edgar Mitchell was born on September 17, 1930 in Hereford, Texas, but grew up in Artesia, New Mexico. He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University with a bachelor's degree in industry and management in 1952 and went on to earn an additional master's degree in aeronautics at the US Naval Academy in 1961 and three years later. He completed a doctorate in aerospace sciences at MIT.
He was elected to NASA in 1966, served on the support team for the Apollo 9 mission and as a backup astronaut for the Apollo 10 crew. He was the one who conducted experiments on the lunar rover simulator during the Apollo 13 flight, and he was the one who developed the procedures for bringing the crew of the damaged spacecraft home.
Mitchell living in Palm Beach County, Florida, since 1975. He is survived by two sons, four daughters, and nine grandchildren.
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