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August 13, 2012

The Last Man to Walk on the Moon

hschmitt.jpg

Harrison Schmitt Apollo 17, December 11-14, 1972 | The twelfth and last man to set foot on the moon,
Schmitt is the only one of the dozen not to have been at some point a member of the US Armed Forces. He was the only scientist-astronaut to walk on the lunar surface, receiving a Phd from Harvard in 1964 for his work on the subject of geology. -- The Men who Walked on the Moon ~ Kuriositas

Posted by gerardvanderleun at August 13, 2012 5:42 PM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.

Your Say

There are enough patents that arose from the space program (CAT scanners, kidney dialysis, a couple thousand others) that went on to add significantly to the Gross Domestic Product, that it can plausibly be argued that the space program actually created value.

For what it cost compared to what it bequeathed to national greatness, it's the best damn bargain ever.

While it might be wise to run the country as if it were a joint stock corporation expected to return value to investors, a nation is more than a joint stock corporation.

William Proxmire sucks diseased dicks in Hell.

Posted by: Mike James at August 13, 2012 8:17 PM

Eugene Cernan might quibble. He and Harrison Schmidt were the last two men on the moon, but Gene says in his book Last Man on the Moon that he was the last one to step off of it when reboarding the lander to come home.

I look forward to the day when a private venture astronaut takes the next steps on that body.

Posted by: Kevin Baker at August 13, 2012 9:04 PM

Ditto to the Gene Cernan info.

Posted by: Scott M at August 14, 2012 2:49 AM

Mike James, I thought kidney dialysis was invented in WWII, I believe the Beatles had more to do with CT scanners than NASA.

Posted by: Mike at August 14, 2012 5:27 AM

Bill - As oppposed to pissing it away into the bottomless pit of entitlements? To create generations of dependent, reliable Dem voters?

We abandoned the stars to fund the Great Society. Poor choice. We, the US, peaked ~1975.

Posted by: butch at August 14, 2012 7:18 AM

We abandoned the stars to fund the Great Society.

Absolutely dead bang perfect. Excellent.

Posted by: Rob De Witt at August 14, 2012 9:00 AM

And I'm happy that no more of my money has been pissed away on this crap.

So: you were OK with the Space Shuttle and space station, and its precursor, Skylab, but not Apollo? Curious thinking. Why not go all in and condemn the whole lot? If you're going to be a luddite, be a total one.

Posted by: Don Rodrigo at August 14, 2012 10:48 AM

I had dinner with Schmidt back in the 80's. Intersting man.

Posted by: Don Rodrigo at August 14, 2012 10:49 AM

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