Rusty Schweickart

Infobox Astronaut
name =Russell Louis "Rusty" Schweickart


type =NASA Astronaut
nationality =American
date_birth =birth date and age|1935|10|25
place_birth =Neptune, New Jersey
occupation =Scientist
selection =1963 NASA Group
time =10d 01h 00m
mission =Apollo 9
insignia =
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Russell Louis "Rusty" Schweickart (born October 25, 1935) is an American astronaut. Schweickart was born in Neptune, New Jersey. He earned an B.S. and an M.S. in Aeronautics/Astronautics from MIT in 1956 and 1963 respectively. [http://alum.mit.edu]

Astronaut experience

Schweickart became an astronaut in October 1963. He spent over 241 hours in space on one spaceflight. In 1969, Schweickart flew on the Apollo 9 mission along with mission commander Jim McDivitt and Command Module Pilot Dave Scott, during which he piloted the lunar module. This was the first manned test of the Apollo lunar module. Schweickart was also due to perform an EVA, the first of the Apollo program, to test the Portable Life Support System that would be used to walk on the Moon.

Schweickart began to suffer from space sickness on the first day in orbit forcing the postponement of the EVA. Eventually Schweickart improved and successfully completed the EVA outside the Lunar Module.

The time Schweickart spent post-flight studying space sickness contributed to his missing assignments on Apollo lunar missions. Schweickart instead served as backup commander for the first Skylab space station mission, which flew in the Spring of 1973. Following the loss of the space station's thermal shield during launch, he assumed responsibility for the development of hardware and procedures for erecting an emergency solar shade and deploying a jammed solar array wing, operations which saved the space station.

Schweickart was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1973.

Rusty Schweickart has spoken and taught at the Esalen Institute. Schweickart is also cofounder of the B612 Foundation, a group that aims to defend Earth from asteroid impacts.

In the 1998 miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon" Schweickart was played by Kieran Mulroney.

He appeared in the series The Universe (TV series) on the episode called "The End of the Earth: Deep Space Threats to Our Planet "

Schweickart received an Emmy Award in 1969 for the transmission of the first live television pictures from outer space. [ [http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/htmlbios/schweickart-rl.html Astronaut Bio: R. Schweickart (9/2006) ] ]

In May 2005 Rusty Schweickart told the U.S. Congress that a mission to attach a device such as a radio transponder to asteroid 99942 Apophis (formerly known as 2004 MN4) should be a high priority; it is estimated that this asteroid has a 1 in 6000 probability of striking the earth in the 21^st century [http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/mg18625051.200;jsessionid=DACBIJNPJMBH] . The latest data indicates that the chance of Apophis impacting the earth is 1 in 45,000 in 2036.

A Schweickart-approved account of his life and career appears in the 2007 book In the Shadow of the Moon.

pacecraft location

The Apollo 9 Command Module "Gumdrop" is on display at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, San Diego, California.

Trivia

In the liner notes of his 1982 album "Missa Gaia/Earth Mass", Paul Winter credits Schweickart with bringing to his attention Robert A. Heinlein's short story "The Green Hills of Earth", in which a blind space poet's ode to home speaks of "the cool green hills of Earth." This line was later echoed in Winter's "The Blue Green Hills of Earth" on the album, said additionally to be inspired by Schweickart's view from orbit.

External links

* [http://www.well.com/~rs Personal page]
* [http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC03/Schweick.htm No Frames, No Boundaries Connecting with the whole planet—from space] by Russell Schweickart

References