Interview with Edgar D. Mitchell

Published July 6, 2011

At a June gathering of astronauts during SpaceFest III held at the Starr Pass Resort in Tucson, Atlantis’ final launch on Friday sparked strong opinions from nearly a dozen Apollo and shuttle astronauts. NASA selected Apollo 14 astronaut retired Navy Capt. Edgar D. Mitchell, 80, Lake Worth, Fla., for astronaut training in 1966. He served as a member of the astronaut support crew for Apollo 9 and as backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 10. During the Apollo 14 flight with spacecraft Cmdr. Adm. Alan Shepard and Col. Stuart Roosa, Mitchell became the sixth man to walk on the moon during the 1971 mission. After serving as backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 16, Mitchell retired from NASA and the U.S. Navy in 1972. He released his autobiography, "The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut’s Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds," in 1996.