Ervin Laszlo - Marco Roveda, La felicità nel cambiamento

Edgar Mitchell, brief biography

Edgar Mitchell

American pilot and astronaut, Edgar Mitchell was born in Hereford,Texas, on September 17, 1930. Mitchell earned a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1952. The following year he joined the US Navy. He later qualified as a research pilot and taught at the Navy’s research pilot school. While on active duty in the Navy, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and a Doctor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from the MIT - Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mitchell was selected to be an astronaut in 1966 and was seconded to Nasa. He was backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 10 and flew again as lunar module pilot on Apollo 14. As pilot of Apollo 14, he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region, making him the sixth person to walk on the Moon. Together with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard he holds the record for the longest ever moonwalking session (9 hours and 17 minutes). Mitchell remained with Nasa until he retired from the Navy in 1972. Footage of Apollo 14 moon flight were featured in the opening credits for tv series "Star Trek: Enterprise". Mitchell was also portrayed by Gary Cole in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon and is one of the astronauts featured in the documentary In the Shadow of the Moon. Later, Edgar Mitchell was awarded honorary doctorates from the New Mexico State University, the University of Akron, Carnegie Mellon University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. He has written several articles and essays, as well as books. He’s currently Advisory Board Chairman of the Institute for Cooperation in Space and is a member of Inress. Now, he is one of the initial supporters of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly - which would be a first step towards a "world parliament".

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