Rusty Schweickart - NASA Service

NASA Service

Schweickart was chosen as part of NASA Astronaut Group 3 in October 1963. On March 21, 1966, he was named as the back-up Pilot for Roger B. Chaffee on Apollo 1, which was to have been the first manned Apollo flight. His fellow crewmen were backup Command Pilot James McDivitt and Senior Pilot David Scott, both veterans of Project Gemini. In December 1966, this crew was promoted to fly the first manned Earth orbital test of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM), with Schewickart as Lunar Module Pilot.

This mission was finally flown as Apollo 9 in March 1969. Schweickart spent just over 241 hours in space, and performed the first extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo program, testing the Portable Life Support System that was later used by the 12 astronauts who walked on the Moon. The flight plan called for him to demonstrate an emergency transfer from the Lunar Module to the Command Module (CM) using handrails on the LM, but he began to suffer from space sickness on the first day in orbit, forcing the postponement of the EVA. Eventually he improved enough to perform a relatively brief EVA with his feet restrained on the LM "porch" (a platform used in transferring to the descent ladder), while Command Module Pilot Scott performed a stand-up EVA through the open hatch of the CM.

The time Schweickart spent after this space mission studying space sickness contributed to his missing assignments on the Apollo lunar missions. Schweickart instead served as backup commander for the first Skylab space station mission, which flew during the spring of 1973. Following the loss of the space station's thermal shield during launch, he assumed responsibility for the development of hardware and procedures for erecting an emergency solar shade and deploying a jammed solar array wing, operations which saved the space station.

Schweickart was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal in 1969, and the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1973.