Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, 6th man on moon, dies in Florida

JOHN PAIN, Associated Press
CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press


MIAMI (AP) — Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who became the sixth man on the moon when he and Alan Shepard helped NASA recover from Apollo 13's "successful failure" and later devoted his life to exploring the mind, physics and unexplained phenomena such as psychics and aliens, has died in Florida. He was 85.

Mitchell died Thursday night at a West Palm Beach hospice after a short illness, his daughter, Kimberly Mitchell, said. Mitchell's passing coincides with the 45th anniversary of the Apollo 14 mission, which ran from Jan. 31-Feb. 9, 1971.

Mitchell, one of only 12 humans to set foot on the moon, was not a typical strait-laced astronaut: In later years, he said aliens visited Earth and faith healers were legit. He attempted to communicate telepathically with friends at home during his Apollo mission. He had an "epiphany" in space that focused him on studying consciousness, physics and other mysteries.

"What I experienced during that three-day trip home was nothing short of an overwhelming sense of universal connectedness," Mitchell wrote in his 1996 autobiography. "It occurred to me that the molecules of my body and the molecules of the spacecraft itself were manufactured long ago in the furnace of one of the ancient stars that burned in the heavens about me."

His passion for exploration led him to become an astronaut, and he joined NASA in 1966. He helped design and test the lunar modules that first reached the moon in 1969 with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin.

Shepard, the first American in space in 1961, picked Mitchell to be on Apollo 13's three-person crew. But they were bumped to the next mission so Shepard would have more time to train — he had been grounded for years because of an inner ear disorder.

The delay was an unexpected benefit: Apollo 13's astronauts were nearly killed when an oxygen tank exploded as they neared the moon in 1970. They made it home safely, but never set foot on the moon. A year later, Shepard, Mitchell and Stu Roosa were the first crew to try again amid falling support for the moon missions from President Nixon, Congress and the public.

"Had we blown it, had it failed for whatever reason, that would probably have been the end of the Apollo program right there," Mitchell said in 1997. But they didn't let that get to them: "When you're carrying that personal load, you just don't have room to carry a national load as well."

Fortunately, their mission, the third lunar landing and Mitchell's only trip in space, was a success.

-- (c) Associated Press 2016-01-06

Off-topic posts and replies removed.

This great adventure inspired the generation of engineers that gave us GPS, mobile phones and the internet.

Never heard of him.

Never heard of him.

Funny the wife and I were talking about it the other day,we could remember the first man on the moon but who knows the others,not many people

Buzz is still here.

Off-topic post removed.

.....sorry to see you go buddy.....

...onto 'the next leg of your journey'......

....and...... 'thanks for sharing'.......

Those " inner ear" problems

Mitchell was not only one of a handful of people to walk on the moon, but was tremendously courageous to be open with the world about his transformational experiences aboard Apollo 14 that lead to insight regarding the nature of consciousness and to share with us information he had privy to via his many high level contacts regarding the reality of extraterrestrial contact. Mitchell, also, strangely, grew up in Roswell, New Mexico and was living in the town at the time of the alleged crash. Again because of his stature and the respect he garnered, some of the people involved in the Roswell incident, including the rancher who found the strange debris, confided with Edgar and he was kind enough to come forward and say what happened was real without a doubt and that there is a cover up in his opinion.

This video, most of which is his response to questions on the alien issue gives you a good idea of Mitchell, a true 21st century man with his ideas about the need for humans to get their act together and reach out for the stars and become a decent upstanding member of the advanced civilizations that make up the galactic community:

In his lifetime, lucky, lucky Edgar got to do what most will only ever dream of. Well done!

As far as the rest of Edgar's beliefs; "a smell of petroleum/turpentine prevails throughout."

Mitchell was not only one of a handful of people to walk on the moon, but was tremendously courageous to be open with the world about his transformational experiences aboard Apollo 14 that lead to insight regarding the nature of consciousness and to share with us information he had privy to via his many high level contacts regarding the reality of extraterrestrial contact. Mitchell, also, strangely, grew up in Roswell, New Mexico and was living in the town at the time of the alleged crash. Again because of his stature and the respect he garnered, some of the people involved in the Roswell incident, including the rancher who found the strange debris, confided with Edgar and he was kind enough to come forward and say what happened was real without a doubt and that there is a cover up in his opinion.

This video, most of which is his response to questions on the alien issue gives you a good idea of Mitchell, a true 21st century man with his ideas about the need for humans to get their act together and reach out for the stars and become a decent upstanding member of the advanced civilizations that make up the galactic community:

Self promotional, factually defective, deflective/ denial , nothingness.

Never heard of him.

Never heard of you, either. I wonder who's contributed more during their lifetime?!