Moon Walker #12: Harrison Schmitt

Moon Mission: Apollo 17
Role: Lunar Module Pilot

Brief Bio: Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt, born on July 3, 1935, in Santa Rita, New Mexico, is an American geologist, former NASA astronaut, university professor, and former U.S. senator from New Mexico. He is the only person without a military aviation background to have walked on the Moon.

Did you know: Harrison Schmitt collected the rock sample Troctolite 76535 during his Apollo 17 mission, which is considered "without doubt the most interesting sample returned from the Moon" and is central evidence suggesting the Moon once had an active magnetic field.

Afterward: After resigning from NASA in August 1975, Schmitt served as a U.S. Senator from New Mexico from 1977 to 1983, and later worked as a consultant in business, geology, space, and public policy, and as an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Key Statements: "Perhaps the hardest thing to get used to on the Moon is that the sky is completely black. There's no blue at all."