David R. Scott
David R. Scott flew on Gemini 8, was Command Module pilot on Apollo 9 and walked and drove the first Lunar Rover on the moon as commander of Apollo 15.
He was born June 6, 1932, in San Antonio, Texas. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy in 1954, standing fifth in a class of 633, and the degrees of Master of Science in Aeronautics and Astronautics and Engineer in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1962. He entered the Air Force and graduated from the Experimental Test Pilot School and Aerospace Research Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.
He was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1963. On March 16, 1966 Scott and Neil Armstrong conducted the first linkup in space, docking their Gemini 8 with an Agena target satellite. But shortly after the ships joined, the astronauts reported their craft was spinning out of control. They disengaged from the Agena, but the tumbling continued. One of 16 Gemini thrusters was stuck open and was spewing fuel into space, imparting the roll motion. Unable to stop the spin with the main thrusters, they activated a second set of 16 thrusters intended for use on re-entry. After 30 minutes, they stabilized the spacecraft. Mission Control ordered Armstrong and Scott to cut the flight short and they splashed down in a contingency recovery area in the Western Pacific. Missed was a planned space walk by Scott.
Apollo 9 was a 10-day earth orbit flight launched March 3, 1969, as the first test of a complete set of Apollo hardware, including the Lunar Module. Scott's crewmates were Commander James A. McDivitt and Lunar Module pilot Russell L. Schweickart. McDivitt and Schweickart separated the LM and flew 113 miles away from Scott and the Command Module before flying back to a rendezvous and linkup with the mother ship. Schweickart took a space walk to test the moon suit.
On Apollo 15, launched July 26, 1971, Scott and James B. Irwin explored the moon while Al Worden orbited in the Command Module. Theirs was the first extended scientific expedition to the moon and the first to use the Lunar Rover. In three separate excursions over three days they drove far and wide, gathering 171 pounds of rocks, setting up a science station and taking photographs. The site was a narrow valley hemmed in on three sides by the 15,000-foot-tall Apennine Mountains and on the fourth by a mile-wide canyon named Hadley Rille.
Following the moon flight, Scott held administrative posts with NASA, including director of the Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards. He retired from the Air Force in 1975 as a colonel.
He currently is president of Scott Science and Technology, Inc., of Los Angeles. He and his wife, Lurton, live in Manhatten Beach, California.
David Scott was inducted into the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on March 19, 1993.