Jack Schmitt | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Schmitt in 1971 | |
| United States Senator fromNew Mexico | |
| In office January 3, 1977 – January 3, 1983 | |
| Preceded by | Joseph Montoya |
| Succeeded by | Jeff Bingaman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Harrison Hagan Schmitt (1935-07-03)July 3, 1935 (age 90) Santa Rita, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse | Teresa Fitzgibbon |
| Education | |
| Awards | NASA Distinguished Service Medal G. K. Gilbert Award (1989) |
| Space career | |
| NASA astronaut | |
Time in space | 12d 13h 52m |
| Selection | NASA Group 4 (1965) |
TotalEVAs | 3 on the lunar surface[1] |
Total EVA time | 22h 3m[2] |
| Missions | Apollo 17 |
Mission insignia |  |
| Retirement | August 30, 1975 |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Geology |
| Institutions | |
| Thesis | Petrology and Structure of the Eiksundsdal Eclogite Complex, Hareidland, Sunnmøre, Norway (1964) |
Harrison Hagan "Jack"Schmitt (born July 3, 1935) is an Americangeologist, formerNASA astronaut,university professor, and formerU.S. senator fromNew Mexico. He is the most recent living person—and only person without a background in military aviation—to have walked on theMoon.[3]
In December 1972, as a crewmember ofApollo 17, Schmitt became the first member ofNASA's first scientist-astronaut group to fly in space. As Apollo 17 was the last of theApollo missions, he also became thetwelfth and second-youngest person to set foot on the Moon and the second-to-last person to step off of the Moon (he boarded theLunar Module shortly before commanderEugene Cernan). Schmitt also remains the only professional scientist to have flown beyondlow Earth orbit and to have visited the Moon.[4] Before training for Apollo 17, he was influential in the geology field for supporting the Apollo program and had helped train Apollo astronauts chosen to visit the lunar surface.
Schmitt resigned from NASA in August 1975 to run for election to theUnited States Senate as a member from New Mexico. As theRepublican candidate inthe 1976 election, he defeatedDemocratic incumbentJoseph Montoya. Inthe 1982 election, Schmitt was defeated by DemocratJeff Bingaman.
Born July 3, 1935,[5] inSanta Rita, New Mexico, Schmitt grew up in nearbySilver City,[6] and is a graduate of theWestern High School (Class of 1953). He received aBachelor of Science degree ingeology from theCalifornia Institute of Technology in 1957[7] and then spent a year studying geology at theUniversity of Oslo in Norway, as a Fulbright Scholar.[6][8] He received aDoctor of Philosophy in geology fromHarvard University in 1964, based on his geological field studies in Norway.[6][9]
Before joiningNASA as a member of thefirst group of scientist-astronauts in June 1965,[10] he worked at the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Center atFlagstaff, Arizona,[11] developing geological field techniques that would be used by the Apollo crews. Following his selection, Schmitt spent his first year atAir ForceUPT 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 begeologic 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.[12]
Schmitt spent considerable time becoming proficient in theCSM andLM systems. In March 1970 he became the first of the scientist-astronauts to be assigned to space flight, joiningRichard F. Gordon Jr. (Commander) andVance Brand (Command Module Pilot) on theApollo 15 backup crew. The flight rotation put these three in line to fly as prime crew on the third following mission, Apollo 18. WhenApollo 18 and Apollo 19 were canceled in September 1970, the community of lunargeologists supporting Apollo felt so strongly about the need to land a professional geologist on the Moon, that they pressuredNASA to reassign Schmitt to a remaining flight. As a result, Schmitt was assigned in August 1971 to fly onApollo 17, replacingJoe Engle as Lunar Module Pilot. Schmitt landed on the Moon with commanderGene Cernan in December 1972.[13]
Schmitt claims to have taken the photograph of theEarth known asThe Blue Marble, one of themost widely distributed photographic images in existence.[14] His Apollo 17 crewmates,Gene Cernan (Mission Commander) andRonald Evans (Command Module Pilot), have made the same claim, and NASA's official position is to credit all three together.[15]
"Perhaps the hardest thing to get used to on the Moon is that the sky is completely black. There's no blue at all."
While on the Moon's surface, Schmitt—the only geologist in the astronaut corps—collected the rock sample designatedTroctolite 76535, which has been called "without doubt the most interesting sample returned from the Moon".[17] Among other distinctions, it is the central piece of evidence suggesting that the Moon once possessed an active magnetic field.[18]
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.[19]
On April 29, 2018, the Schmitt Space Communicator SC-1x named in his honor was carried aboard theBlue OriginNew Shepard crew capsule[20][21] in a project partly funded by NASA.[22][23] It launched the first commercial two-way data andWi-Fi hotspot service in space and sent the first commercialTwitter message from space.[24][25] The three-pound (1.4 kg) device was developed bySolstar, which Schmitt had joined as an advisor, and launched 66 miles (106 km) above the Earth's surface, just past theedge of space, as a technology demonstration. The device was admitted to theSmithsonianNational Air and Space Museum.[26][27]
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On August 30, 1975, Schmitt retired from NASA to seek election as aRepublican to theUnited States Senate representingNew Mexico in the1976 election.[28][29] The astronaut-politician campaigned for fourteen months, and his campaign focused on the future.[30] In the Republican primary, held on June 1, 1976, Schmitt defeated the unknown Eugene Peirce.[31] In the election, Schmitt opposed two-term Democratic incumbentJoseph Montoya.[30] He defeated Montoya 57% to 43%.[32]
He served one term and, notably, was the chairman of the Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee of theUnited States Senate Committee on Commerce.[33] He sought a second term in1982, facing state Attorney GeneralJeff Bingaman. Bingaman criticized Schmitt for not paying enough attention to local matters; his campaign slogan asked, "What on Earth has he done for you lately?"[34] This, combined with the deep recession, proved too much for Schmitt to overcome; he was defeated, 54% to 46%.[35]
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 theUniversity of Wisconsin–Madison,[36] and has long been a proponent of lunar resource utilization.[37][38] In 1997 he proposed the Interlune InterMars Initiative, listing among its goals the advancement of private-sector acquisition and use of lunar resources, particularly lunarhelium-3 as a fuel for notionalnuclear fusion reactors.[39]
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Schmitt was chair of theNASA Advisory Council, whose mandate is to provide technical advice to the NASA Administrator, from November 2005 until his abrupt resignation on October 16, 2008.[40] 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.[41]
Schmitt also serves as a visiting senior research scientist at theFlorida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition.[42]
In January 2011, he was appointed as secretary of theNew Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department in the cabinet of GovernorSusana Martinez, but was forced to give up the appointment the following month after refusing to submit to a required background investigation.[43]El Paso Times called him the "most celebrated" candidate for New Mexico energy secretary.[44]
Schmitt wrote a book entitledReturn to the Moon: Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of Space in 2006.[45] Schmitt is also involved in several civic projects, including the improvement of the Senator Harrison H. Schmitt Big Sky Hang Glider Park inAlbuquerque, New Mexico.[46]
Schmitt hasrejected thescientific consensus on climate change, which states that climate change is real, progressing, dangerous, and primarily human-caused. He has claimed that climate change is predominantly caused by natural factors, as opposed to human activity. Schmitt has argued that the risks posed by climate change are overstated and has instead supported the notion[47] that climate change is a "tool" used to advocate for the expansion of the government.[41]
Schmitt resigned from thePlanetary Society due to disagreements over their "Roadmap to Space Exploration", which recommended prioritizing earlier human missions to Mars over U.S. lunar expeditions. He believed lunar exploration was crucial for Mars missions, stating, "The fastest way to get to Mars is by way of the Moon."[48] Additionally, Schmitt criticized the society's stance on global warming, writing in his resignation letter that the "'global warming scare' is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making," asserting it should not be part of the Society's activities.[41] Schmitt spoke at the March 2009International Conference on Climate Change, an anthropogenicclimate change denier event[49] hosted by the conservativeHeartland Institute,[50] where he said that climate change was a "stalking horse forNational Socialism."[51] He appeared in December that year on theFox Business Network, saying that "[t]heCO2 scare is ared herring".[52]
In a 2009 interview with radio hostAlex Jones, Schmitt asserted a link between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the American environmental movement: "I think the whole trend really began with the fall of the Soviet Union. Because the great champion of the opponents of liberty, namely communism, had to find some other place to go and they basically went into the environmental movement."[53]
In 2013, Schmitt co-authored an opinion column inThe Wall Street Journal withWilliam Happer, contending that increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are not significantly correlated with global warming, attributing the "single-minded demonization of this natural and essential atmospheric gas" to advocates of government control of energy production. Noting a positive relationship between crop resistance to drought and increasing carbon dioxide levels, the authors argued, "Contrary to what some would have us believe, increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will benefit the increasing population on the planet by increasing agricultural productivity."[54]
Schmitt was one of five inductees into theInternational Space Hall of Fame in 1977.[65] He was one of 24 Apollo astronauts who were inducted into theU.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame in 1997.[66]
Schmitt is one of the astronauts featured in the 2007 documentaryIn the Shadow of the Moon.[67] He also contributed to the 2006 bookNASA's Scientist-Astronauts by David Shayler andColin Burgess.
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Republican | Harrison Schmitt | 234,681 | 56.82 | +10.25% | |
| Democratic | Joseph Montoya (incumbent) | 176,382 | 42.7 | −9.56% | |
| Raza Unida | Ernesto B. Borunda | 1,087 | 0.26 | N/A | |
| American Independent | Malcolm "Matt" Dillon | 906 | 0.22 | N/A | |
| Total votes | 413,056 | 100.0 | N/A | ||
| Republicangain fromDemocratic | |||||
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Jeff Bingaman | 217,682 | 53.77 | +11.07% | |
| Republican | Harrison Schmitt (incumbent) | 187,128 | 46.23 | −10.59% | |
| Total votes | 404,810 | 100.0 | N/A | ||
| Democraticgain fromRepublican | |||||
| Party political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Anderson Carter | Republican nominee forU.S. Senator fromNew Mexico (Class 1) 1976,1982 | Succeeded by Bill Valentine |
| U.S. Senate | ||
| Preceded by | U.S. Senator (Class 1) from New Mexico 1977–1983 Served alongside:Pete Domenici | Succeeded by |
| U.S. order of precedence (ceremonial) | ||
| Preceded byas Former U.S. Senator | Order of precedence of the United States | Succeeded byas Former U.S. Senator |
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