Rusty Schweickart
Encyclopedia
Russell Louis "Rusty" Schweickart aka Schweikart (born October 25, 1935) is an American former astronaut
, research scientist, US Air Force fighter
pilot, business and government executive. Schweickart, chosen in NASA's third astronaut group, is best known as the Lunar Module
pilot on the Apollo 9
mission, the first manned flight test of the LM, on which he performed the first in-space test of the Portable Life Support System used by the Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon. As backup commander of the first Skylab
mission, he was responsible for developing the hardware and procedures used by the first crew to perform critical in-flight repairs of the Skylab station. After Skylab, he served for a time as Director of User Affairs in NASA's Office of Applications. Schweickart left NASA in 1977 to serve for two years as California governor Jerry Brown
s assistant for science and technology, then was appointed by Brown as California's Commissioner of Energy for five and a half years.
, New Jersey.
After graduating from Manasquan High School
, he earned an B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics/Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in 1956 and 1963 respectively.
on Apollo 1
, which was to have been the first manned Apollo flight. His fellow crewmen were backup Command Pilot James A. McDivitt and David R. Scott, both Project Gemini
veterans. In December 1966, this crew was promoted to fly the first manned Earth orbital test of the Apollo Lunar Module
(LM), with Schewickart as Lunar Module Pilot.
This mission was finally flown as Apollo 9
in March 1969. Schweickart spent just over 241 hours in space, and performed the first Extra-vehicular activity
(EVA) of the Apollo program, testing the Portable Life Support System that was later used by the 12 astronauts who walked on the Moon. The flight plan called for him to demonstrate an emergency transfer from the Lunar Module to the Command Module
(CM) using handrails on the LM, but
he began to suffer from space sickness
on the first day in orbit, forcing the postponement of the EVA.
Eventually he improved enough to perform a relatively brief standup EVA with his feet restrained on the LM "porch" (a platform used in transferring to the descent ladder), while Command Module Pilot Scott performed a similar standup through the open hatch of the CM.
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.
. Schweickart is also cofounder of the B612 Foundation
, a group that aims to defend Earth from asteroid impacts. He is the current Chairman of the Board.
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 episodes called The End of the Earth: Deep Space Threats to Our Planet and Stopping Armageddon
In May 2005 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 21st century. 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
.
In 2010, Schweickart served as Co-Chair of the NASA Advisory Council Ad-Hoc Task Force on Planetary Defense.
Schweickart, along with Alexey Leonov, Vitaly Sevastyanov and Georgi Grechko
established the Association of Space Explorers
in 1984. Membership is open to all people who have flown in outer space
.
Astronaut
An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
, research scientist, US Air Force fighter
Fighter aircraft
A fighter aircraft is a military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat with other aircraft, as opposed to a bomber, which is designed primarily to attack ground targets...
pilot, business and government executive. Schweickart, chosen in NASA's third astronaut group, is best known as the Lunar Module
Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back...
pilot on the Apollo 9
Apollo 9
Apollo 9, the third manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first flight of the Command/Service Module with the Lunar Module...
mission, the first manned flight test of the LM, on which he performed the first in-space test of the Portable Life Support System used by the Apollo astronauts who walked on the Moon. As backup commander of the first Skylab
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
mission, he was responsible for developing the hardware and procedures used by the first crew to perform critical in-flight repairs of the Skylab station. After Skylab, he served for a time as Director of User Affairs in NASA's Office of Applications. Schweickart left NASA in 1977 to serve for two years as California governor Jerry Brown
Jerry Brown
Edmund Gerald "Jerry" Brown, Jr. is an American politician. Brown served as the 34th Governor of California , and is currently serving as the 39th California Governor...
s assistant for science and technology, then was appointed by Brown as California's Commissioner of Energy for five and a half years.
Early life
Schweickart was born in Neptune TownshipNeptune Township, New Jersey
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 27,690 people, 10,907 households, and 6,805 families residing in the township. The population density was 3,366.8 people per square mile . There were 12,217 housing units at an average density of 1,485.4 per square mile...
, New Jersey.
After graduating from Manasquan High School
Manasquan High School
Manasquan High School is a four-year comprehensive community public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grade from Manasquan, in Monmouth County, New Jersey, United States, operating as part of the Manasquan Public Schools...
, he earned an B.S. and M.S. in Aeronautics/Astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
in 1956 and 1963 respectively.
Military service
Schweickart served in the US Air Force and Massachusetts Air National Guard (101st Tactical Fighter Squadron) from 1956 to 1963, with over 4000 hours of flight time, including 3500 hours in high performance jet aircraft.NASA service
Schweickart was chosen as part of NASA Astronaut Group 3 in October 1963. On March 21, 1966, he was named as backup Pilot to Roger B. ChaffeeRoger B. Chaffee
Roger Bruce Chaffee was an American aeronautical engineer and a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program. Chaffee died along with fellow astronauts Gus Grissom and Ed White during a pre-launch test for the Apollo 1 mission at Cape Kennedy...
on Apollo 1
Apollo 1
Apollo 1 was scheduled to be the first manned mission of the Apollo manned lunar landing program, with a target launch date of February 21, 1967. A cabin fire during a launch pad test on January 27 at Launch Pad 34 at Cape Canaveral killed all three crew members: Command Pilot Virgil "Gus"...
, which was to have been the first manned Apollo flight. His fellow crewmen were backup Command Pilot James A. McDivitt and David R. Scott, both Project Gemini
Project Gemini
Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of NASA, the civilian space agency of the United States government. Project Gemini was conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, with ten manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966....
veterans. In December 1966, this crew was promoted to fly the first manned Earth orbital test of the Apollo Lunar Module
Apollo Lunar Module
The Apollo Lunar Module was the lander portion of the Apollo spacecraft built for the US Apollo program by Grumman to carry a crew of two from lunar orbit to the surface and back...
(LM), with Schewickart as Lunar Module Pilot.
This mission was finally flown as Apollo 9
Apollo 9
Apollo 9, the third manned mission in the American Apollo space program, was the first flight of the Command/Service Module with the Lunar Module...
in March 1969. Schweickart spent just over 241 hours in space, and performed the first Extra-vehicular activity
Extra-vehicular activity
Extra-vehicular activity is work done by an astronaut away from the Earth, and outside of a spacecraft. The term most commonly applies to an EVA made outside a craft orbiting Earth , but also applies to an EVA made on the surface of the Moon...
(EVA) of the Apollo program, testing the Portable Life Support System that was later used by the 12 astronauts who walked on the Moon. The flight plan called for him to demonstrate an emergency transfer from the Lunar Module to the Command Module
Apollo Command/Service Module
The Command/Service Module was one of two spacecraft, along with the Lunar Module, used for the United States Apollo program which landed astronauts on the Moon. It was built for NASA by North American Aviation...
(CM) using handrails on the LM, but
he began to suffer from space sickness
Space adaptation syndrome
Space adaptation syndrome or space sickness is a condition experienced by around half of space travelers during adaptation to weightlessness. It is related to motion sickness, as the vestibular system adapts to weightlessness.- Cause and remedy :...
on the first day in orbit, forcing the postponement of the EVA.
Eventually he improved enough to perform a relatively brief standup EVA with his feet restrained on the LM "porch" (a platform used in transferring to the descent ladder), while Command Module Pilot Scott performed a similar standup through the open hatch of the CM.
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
Skylab
Skylab was a space station launched and operated by NASA, the space agency of the United States. Skylab orbited the Earth from 1973 to 1979, and included a workshop, a solar observatory, and other systems. It was launched unmanned by a modified Saturn V rocket, with a mass of...
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.
Post-NASA career
Schweickart has spoken and taught at the Esalen InstituteEsalen Institute
Esalen Institute is a residential community and retreat in Big Sur, California, which focuses upon humanistic alternative education. Esalen is a nonprofit organization devoted to activites such as meditation, massage, Gestalt, yoga, psychology, ecology, and spirituality...
. Schweickart is also cofounder of the B612 Foundation
B612 Foundation
The B612 Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to protecting the Earth from asteroid strikes. Their immediate goal is to "significantly alter the orbit of an asteroid in a controlled manner by 2015"....
, a group that aims to defend Earth from asteroid impacts. He is the current Chairman of the Board.
In the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon Schweickart was played by Kieran Mulroney
Kieran Mulroney
Kieran Mulroney is an American actor known for his numerous television appearances. He is also a musician and screenwriter, along with his wife, Michele. He was born in Alexandria, Virginia, where he graduated from T. C. Williams High School. His brother is actor Dermot Mulroney.-Television:* NCIS...
.
He appeared in the series The Universe (TV series)
The Universe (TV series)
The Universe is an American documentary television series that features computer-generated imagery and computer graphics of astronomical objects in the universe plus interviews with experts who study in the fields of cosmology, astronomy, and astrophysics...
on the episodes called The End of the Earth: Deep Space Threats to Our Planet and Stopping Armageddon
In May 2005 Schweickart told the U.S. Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
that a mission to attach a device such as a radio transponder to asteroid 99942 Apophis
99942 Apophis
99942 Apophis is a near-Earth asteroid that caused a brief period of concern in December 2004 because initial observations indicated a small probability that it would strike the Earth in 2029. Additional observations provided improved predictions that eliminated the possibility of an impact on...
(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 21st century. 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
In the Shadow of the Moon (book)
In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility is a 2007 non-fiction book by space historians Francis French and Colin Burgess...
.
In 2010, Schweickart served as Co-Chair of the NASA Advisory Council Ad-Hoc Task Force on Planetary Defense.
Schweickart, along with Alexey Leonov, Vitaly Sevastyanov and Georgi Grechko
Georgi Grechko
Georgy Mikhaylovich Grechko is a retired Soviet cosmonaut who flew on several space flights among which Soyuz 17, Soyuz 26, and Soyuz T-14.Grechko graduated from the Leningrad Institute of Mechanics with a doctorate in mathematics. He was a member of Communist Party of Soviet Union...
established the Association of Space Explorers
Association of Space Explorers
The Association of Space Explorers is a non-profit organization with a membership composed of people who have completed at least one Earth orbit in space . It was founded in 1985, and the current membership stands at 320 from 34 different countries...
in 1984. Membership is open to all people who have flown in outer space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
.