Harrison Schmitt

Born July 3, 1935,[4] in Santa Rita, New Mexico, Schmitt grew up in nearby Silver City,[5] and is a graduate of the Western High School (class of 1953). He received a B.S. degree in geology from the California Institute of Technology in 1957[6] and then spent a year studying geology at the University of Oslo in Norway, as a Fulbright Scholar.[5][7] He received a Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University in 1964, based on his geological field studies in Norway.[5][8]

Before joining NASA as a member of the first group of scientist-astronauts in June 1965,[9] he worked at the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Center at Flagstaff, Arizona,[10] developing geological field techniques that would be used by the Apollo crews. Following his selection, Schmitt spent his first year at Air Force UPT learning to become a jet pilot. Upon his return to the astronaut corps in Houston, he played a key role in training Apollo crews to be geologic observers when they were in lunar orbit and competent geologic field workers when they were on the lunar surface. After each of the landing missions, he participated in the examination and evaluation of the returned lunar samples and helped the crews with the scientific aspects of their mission reports.

Schmitt spent considerable time becoming proficient in the CSM and LM systems. In March 1970 he became the first of the scientist-astronauts to be assigned to space flight, joining Richard F. Gordon Jr. (Commander) and Vance Brand (Command Module Pilot) on the Apollo 15 backup crew. The flight rotation put these three in line to fly as prime crew on the third following mission, Apollo 18. When Apollo 18 and Apollo 19 were canceled in September 1970, the community of lunar geologists supporting Apollo felt so strongly about the need to land a professional geologist on the Moon, that they pressured NASA to reassign Schmitt to a remaining flight. As a result, Schmitt was assigned in August 1971 to fly on the last mission, Apollo 17, replacing Joe Engle as Lunar Module Pilot. Schmitt landed on the Moon with commander Gene Cernan in December 1972.[11]

Schmitt claims to have taken the photograph of the Earth known as The Blue Marble, one of the most widely distributed photographic images in existence.[12]

While on the Moon's surface, Schmitt — the only geologist in the astronaut corps — collected the rock sample designated Troctolite 76535, which has been called "without doubt the most interesting sample returned from the Moon".[14] Among other distinctions, it is the central piece of evidence suggesting that the Moon once possessed an active magnetic field.[15]

As he returned to the Lunar Module before Cernan, Schmitt is the next-to-last person to have walked on the Moon's surface. Since the death of Cernan in 2017, Schmitt is the most recent person to have walked on the Moon who is still alive. After the completion of the Apollo 17 mission, Schmitt played an active role in documenting the Apollo geologic results and also took on the task of organizing NASA's Energy Program Office.[16]

On April 29, 2018, the Schmitt Space Communicator SC-1x named in his honor was carried aboard the Blue Origin New Shepard crew capsule[17][18] in a project partly funded by NASA.[19][20] It launched the first commercial two-way data and wi-fi hotspot service in space and sent the first commercial Twitter message from space.[21][22] The three-pound device was developed by Solstar, which Schmitt joined as an advisor, and launched 66 miles above the Earth's surface as a technology demonstration. The device was admitted to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.[23][24]

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  Schmitt poses by the American flag, with Earth in the background, during Apollo 17's first EVA.
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  Schmitt collects lunar specimens during the Apollo 17 mission.
• Schmitt falls while on a Moonwalk.
• Astronauts Harrison Schmitt and Eugene Cernan singing "While Strolling Through the Park One Day" on the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission
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  The Blue Marble, an iconic photograph of Earth, is credited to the three crewmen of Apollo 17

Senator Schmitt with President Ronald Reagan in Roswell, New Mexico, October 1982

Schmitt in 2009

On August 30, 1975, Schmitt resigned from NASA to seek election as a Republican to the United States Senate representing New Mexico in the 1976 election.[25][26] Schmitt campaigned for fourteen months, and his campaign focused on the future.[27] In the Republican primary, held on June 1, 1976, Schmitt defeated Eugene Peirce.[28] In the election, Schmitt opposed two-term Democratic incumbent Joseph Montoya.[27] He defeated Montoya 57% to 42%.[29]

He served one term and, notably, was the chairman of the Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce.[30] He sought a second term in 1982, facing state Attorney General Jeff Bingaman. Bingaman attacked Schmitt for not paying enough attention to local matters; his campaign slogan asked, "What on Earth has he done for you lately?"[31] This, combined with the deep recession, proved too much for Schmitt to overcome; he was defeated, 54% to 46%.[32]

Following his Senate term, Schmitt has been a consultant in business, geology, space, and public policy. Schmitt is an adjunct professor of engineering physics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison,[33] and has long been a proponent of lunar resource utilization.[34][35] In 1997 he proposed the Interlune InterMars Initiative, listing among its goals the advancement of private-sector acquisition and use of lunar resources, particularly lunar helium-3 as a fuel for notional nuclear fusion reactors.[36]

Schmitt (second from right) attends President Donald Trump's signing of Space Policy Directive-1, directing NASA to resume human flight to the Moon and beyond

Schmitt was chair of the NASA Advisory Council, whose mandate is to provide technical advice to the NASA Administrator, from November 2005 until his abrupt resignation on October 16, 2008.[37] In November 2008, he quit the Planetary Society over policy advocacy differences, citing the organization's statements on "focusing on Mars as the driving goal of human spaceflight" (Schmitt said that going back to the Moon would speed progress toward a crewed Mars mission), on "accelerating research into global climate change through more comprehensive Earth observations" (Schmitt voiced objections to the notion of a present "scientific consensus" on climate change as any policy guide), and on international cooperation (which he felt would retard rather than accelerate progress), among other points of divergence.[38]

Schmitt also serves as a visiting senior research scientist at the Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition.[39]

In January 2011, he was appointed as secretary of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department in the cabinet of Governor Susana Martinez, but was forced to give up the appointment the following month after refusing to submit to a required background investigation.[40] El Paso Times called him the "most celebrated" candidate for New Mexico energy secretary.[41]

Schmitt wrote a book entitled Return to the Moon: Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of Space in 2006.[42] Schmitt is also involved in several civic projects, including the improvement of the Senator Harrison H. Schmitt Big Sky Hang Glider Park in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[43]