Stuart Roosa - Career

Career

He started his career as a smokejumper with the U.S. Forest Service in the early 1950s. He joined the U.S. Air Force in 1953, attended Gunnery School at Del Rio Air Force Base, Texas, and Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, and was a graduate of the Aviation Cadet Program at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, where he received his flight training commission in the Air Force.

From July 1962 to August 1964, Roosa was a maintenance flight test pilot at Olmsted Air Force Base, Pennsylvania, flying F-101 aircraft. He was a fighter pilot at Langley Air Force Base, VA, where he flew the F-84F and F-100 aircraft. He graduated from the Aerospace Test Pilots School and was an experimental test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base, CA from 1965 to 1966. Throughout his career, Roosa logged more than 5,500 hours of flying time (5,000 hours in jets) and 217 hours in space. He also served as chief of service engineering at Tachikawa Air Base, Japan, for two years following graduation from the University of Colorado, under the Air Force Institute of Technology Program.

Roosa was one of 19 people selected as part of the astronaut class of 1966 and served as a member of the astronaut support crew for the Apollo 9 mission. On Apollo 14 he spent 33 hours in solo orbit around the Moon, conducting an extensive series of experiments. His ability as a Command Module Pilot was put to the test when initial attempts to dock with the Lunar Module failed, and the problems were overcome only by Roosa's skill and careful coordination of the crew and ground controllers. He also carried tree seeds as part of a joint U.S. Forest Service/NASA project. The seeds were germinated on his return and planted throughout the United States, becoming known as the "Moon Trees".

Following Apollo 14, Roosa served as backup command module pilot for Apollo 16 and Apollo 17, and based on crew rotations, would probably have commanded one of the last Apollo Missions had it not been cancelled. He was assigned to the Space Shuttle program until his retirement as a Colonel from the Air Force in 1976. After leaving NASA and the Air Force, he held a number of positions in international and U.S. businesses, and became owner and president of Gulf Coast Coors in 1981. His daughter Rosemary was named CEO of Gulf Coast Coors several years later.