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Russel L. (Rusty) Schweickart
Russell L. Schweickart orbited the Earth on Apollo 9, during which the Lunar Module designed to land on the moon was tested for the first time in space.
Schweickart was born October 25, 1935, in Neptune, N.J. He attended Massachusetts Institute of Technology, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and a Master of Science in aeronautics and astronautics.
Following graduation, he served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and Air National Guard from 1956 to 1963, logging 4,200 hours of flight time, 3,500 in jet aircraft. During part of this period he worked as a research scientist in the Experimental Astronomy Laboratory at MIT.
Schweickart went to NASA in October 1963 as one of 14 selected in the third group of astronauts. He was Lunar Module pilot on the 10-day Apollo 9 mission, which was the first to test the moon landing vehicle in space. After reaching Earth orbit, Commander James McDivitt and Lunar Module pilot Schweickart tested the still-attached vehicle for two days before separating it from the Command Module and flying it 113 miles away. Executing a series of maneuvers, they returned successfully to the mother ship, manned by David Scott. During the mission, Schweickart took a 46-minute space walk to test the portable life support backpack that astronauts would use later on the moon.
He later moved to NASA Headquarters in Washington as director of user affairs in the Office of Applications, responsible for transferring NASA technology to the outside world. He then held several technology-related positions with the California state government, including assistant to the governor for science and technology and, in 1979, as chairman of the California Energy Commission.
Schweickart currently is president of Aloha Networks, Inc., of San Francisco.
Russel Schweickart was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on October 4, 1997.