Russell Schweickart

American astronaut Rusty Schweikart was born in Neptune Township, New Jersey. A graduate of Manasquan High School, he attended the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and earned a B.S. in Aeronautics in 1956 and an M.S. in Astronautics in 1963. He enlisted in the US Air Force as a pilot with the 101st Tactical Fighter Wing, racking up more than 4000 hours of flight time. He applied for the NASA astronaut program and was accepted in October of 1963. On March 21, 1966, he was chosen as back-up pilot, for Roger B. Chaffee, on the Apollo 1 mission. In December of that year that crew was chosen to fly the fist manned Earth orbital test of the Apollo Lunar Module, and Schweikart was assigned as Lunar Module Pilot. The Apollo 1 mission was launched in March of 1969. Schweikart was the first to perform an Extravehicular Activity (EVA) in the entire Apollo program, in which he tested the Portable Life Support System that was later used by the astronauts who walked on the moon. He was also chosen to perform another EVA, a demonstration of an emergency transfer from the Lunar Module to the Command Module, but he began to suffer from space sickness and the attempt was postponed, although a scaled-down version of it was eventually done after he had recovered sufficiently. After the mission Schweikart began to study the phenomenon known as space sickness, and led to his missing assignments on the Apollo program's lunar missions. He was backup commander for the first Skylab space station mission in 1973. During the launch of that mission the station's thermal heat shield was lost, and Schewikart devoted considerable time developing procedures and equipment for building and implementing an emergency solar shade and deployment of a jammed solar array wing. His efforts resulted in saving the space station. He was awarded NASA's Distinguished Service Medal in 1969 and the agency's Exceptional Service Medal in 1973. Schweikart is the co-founder and Chairman of the Board of the B612 Foundation, an organization devoted to finding ways to defend Earth from the impact of stray asteroids. In 2005 he testified before Congress about the disastrous consequences resulting from Asteroid 99942 Apophis, which some astronomers estimated could strike the Earth in the 21st century, and the need for a space flight to attach a transponder to the asteroid. In 2007 a book about his life, "In the Shadow of the Moon", was published.