Edgar Mitchell
Edgar Dean Mitchell was born on the 17th of September 1930, in Hereford, Texas. His family moved to New Mexico during the Great Depression and settled near Roswell. He learned to fly at age thirteen and earned his private pilot license by sixteen. This early aviation training set a trajectory that would eventually lead him to the Moon. Mitchell grew up in Artesia, New Mexico, where he joined the Boy Scouts of America. He achieved Life Scout status, the second highest rank available at the time. He also became a member of DeMolay International, part of the Masonic Fraternity. His hobbies included handball, tennis, swimming, scuba diving, and soaring. These activities built a foundation of discipline and physical capability. In 1948, he graduated from Artesia High School. The year after, he received a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management from Carnegie Institute of Technology. That same year, 1952, he entered the United States Navy.
NASA selected Mitchell in 1966 as part of its fifth astronaut group. He served on support crews for Apollo 9 and Apollo 10 before being assigned to Apollo 14. Commander Alan Shepard had been grounded by medical issues since the Gemini program. The crew switch allowed Shepard more time to train. On the 5th of February 1971, Mitchell landed aboard the Lunar Module Antares in the Fra Mauro Highlands region. He spent nine hours working on the lunar surface. They deployed scientific equipment and collected almost 100 pounds of lunar samples. Other achievements included using the Mobile Equipment Transporter and deploying color television with a new Vidicon tube. The mission marked the longest distance traversed on foot on the lunar surface at that time. Mitchell logged a total of 216 hours and 42 minutes in space during his first flight. He took photos, including one where his shadow is cast over the lunar surface near the American flag raised by Shepard. That photo later appeared on Popular Sciences photo gallery of best astronaut selfies. In 1970, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work helping bring back the Apollo 13 crew.
Mitchell retired from NASA and the U.S. Navy as a captain in October 1972. Immediately thereafter, he founded Edgar D. Mitchell & Associates of Monterey, California. This commercial organization promoted ecologically-pure products designed to alleviate planetary problems. After moving to Atherton, California, he became founding chairman of the Institute of Noetic Sciences in Palo Alto, California in 1973. The institute focused on consciousness research and other related phenomena. Mitchell stated that science and religion had lived on opposite sides of the street for hundreds of years. He sought to put two faces of reality into the same understanding. From 1974 to 1978, he was president of the Palm Beach, Florida-based Edgar Mitchell Corporation. He co-founded the Association of Space Explorers in 1983. Later, he served as chairman of the Mitchell Communications Company. Journalist Annie Jacobsen asserted that his Mind Science Institute was employed by the Central Intelligence Agency as a conduit for payments to researchers like Andrija Puharich and Uri Geller. In 1976, Mitchell attempted to secure additional funding for remote viewing research in a private meeting with then-Director of Central Intelligence George H. W. Bush.
Mitchell publicly expressed opinions that many unidentified flying objects recorded since the 1940s belong to visitors from other planets. Dateline NBC conducted an interview with him on the 19th of April 1996. During this interview, he discussed meeting officials from three countries who claimed personal encounters with extraterrestrials. He offered his opinion that evidence for such contact was very strong and classified by governments. He claimed governments were covering up visitations and alien bodies in places like Roswell, New Mexico. In 2004, he told the St. Petersburg Times that a cabal of insiders studied recovered alien bodies. This group stopped briefing U.S. Presidents after John F. Kennedy. On the 23rd of July 2008, he was interviewed on Kerrang Radio by Nick Margerrison. Mitchell claimed the Roswell crash was real and stated that governments have hidden the truth for 60 years. A spokesman for NASA later responded that they do not track UFOs or involve themselves in any cover-up about alien life. In March 2014, Mitchell clarified that no one had ever threatened him over his claims regarding UFOs.
Mitchell was married to Louise Randall from 1951 to 1972. Following their divorce, he married Anita Rettig in 1973. The couple divorced in 1984 when he began an affair with former Playboy model Sheilah Ann Ledbetter. He was father to two children with Randall and adopted Rettig's three children. Later, he became father to another child with Ledbetter and was ordered to pay child support. Ledbetter and Mitchell married in 1989 and divorced in 1999. He was survived by five children, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandchild. On the 29th of June 2011, the federal government filed a lawsuit against Mitchell in Miami, Florida. They discovered he placed a camera used on Apollo 14 for auction at Bonhams. The litigation requested the camera be returned to NASA. Mitchell argued NASA had given him the camera as a gift upon mission completion. Bonhams withdrew the camera from auction. Attorneys reached a settlement agreement in October 2011. Mitchell agreed to return the camera to NASA, which would donate it for display at the National Air and Space Museum. Congress enacted H.R. 4158 on the 20th of September 2012, confirming full ownership rights of artifacts to astronauts.
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Common questions
When was Edgar Mitchell born and where did he grow up?
Edgar Dean Mitchell was born on the 17th of September 1930, in Hereford, Texas. His family moved to New Mexico during the Great Depression and settled near Roswell before he grew up in Artesia.
What were the key dates for Edgar Mitchell's Apollo 14 mission?
Mitchell landed aboard the Lunar Module Antares on the 5th of February 1971 in the Fra Mauro Highlands region. He spent nine hours working on the lunar surface and logged a total of 216 hours and 42 minutes in space during his first flight.
Why did Edgar Mitchell claim governments are hiding alien contact evidence?
Mitchell stated that evidence for such contact was very strong and classified by governments. He claimed governments were covering up visitations and alien bodies in places like Roswell, New Mexico.
How did Edgar Mitchell die and what legal issues did he face after retirement?
Mitchell died on the 2nd of May 1972 as a captain in October 1972 when he retired from NASA and the U.S. Navy. The federal government filed a lawsuit against him on the 29th of June 2011 regarding an auctioned camera used on Apollo 14.
When did Edgar Mitchell interview about UFOs occur and who conducted it?
Dateline NBC conducted an interview with him on the 19th of April 1996. During this interview, he discussed meeting officials from three countries who claimed personal encounters with extraterrestrials.