|
Edgar Mitchell's spaceflight was Apollo 14 in 1971, where he became the sixth of the twelve moonwalkers. He flew with the late Alan Shepard, the first American in space ten years prior. Maneuvering their lunar module, "Antares," to a landing in the hilly upland Fra Mauro region of the moon, Shepard and Mitchell deployed and activated various scientific equipment and experiments and collected almost 100 pounds of lunar samples for return to Earth. Other Apollo 14 achievements included: Largest payload placed in lunar orbit; longest distance traversed on foot on the lunar surface; largest payload returned from the lunar surface; longest lunar surface stay time (33 hours); longest lunar surface EVA (9 hours and 17 minutes); first use of color TV with new vidicon tube on lunar surface; and first extensive orbital science period conducted during CSM solo operations. Mitchell holds degrees from Carnegie-Mellon and MIT. His life's interest is investigation of human paranormal potential, and even conducted ESP experiments with an earthbound colleague during downtime en route to the moon. Apollo 14 was the last mission where explorers had to "hoof it" everywhere and navigate by dead reckoning.SPACEFEST 2009 AUTOGRAPH FEES (Fri-Sat)
|