One Of Only 12 Men To Have Walked On The Moon

Another of the small group of astronauts to have walked on the moon has Gone West. Apollo 14 Lunar Module pilot Edgar Mitchell passed away Thursday at a local hospice facility in Palm Beach, FL. He was 85 years old.

"On behalf of the entire NASA family, I would like to express my condolences to the family and friends of NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell. As a member of the Apollo 14 crew, Edgar is one of only 12 men to walk on the moon and he helped to change how we view our place in the universe," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.

“Edgar spoke poetically about seeing our home planet from the moon saying: ‘Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth … home.’

“He believed in exploration, having been drawn to NASA by President Kennedy’s call to send humans to the moon. He is one of the pioneers in space exploration on whose shoulders we now stand."

The Palm Beach Post reports that Mitchell became the center of a controversy when he donated the camera he had used on the lunar mission to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The U.S. Government accused him of stealing the camera and filed a lawsuit against him. But Mitchell denied the allegations, saying that if he hadn't brought it back, it would have been lost forever. He also donated a moon rock given to him by NASA to recognize his achievements in the Apollo program to the South Florida Science Museum in West Palm Beach, FL.

In his book "The Way of the Explorer", Mitchell wrote, "There was a sense that our presence as space travelers, and the existence of the universe itself, was not accidental but that there was an intelligent process at work.”

(Image provided by NASA)

FMI: www.nasa.gov/feature/apollo-astronaut-edgar-mitchell-dies-at-age-85