Early life and education Born July 3, 1935, in
Santa Rita, New Mexico, Schmitt grew up in nearby
Silver City, and is a graduate of the
Western High School (Class of 1953). He received a
Bachelor of Science degree with special field in
geology from the
California Institute of Technology in 1957 and then spent a year studying geology at the
University of Oslo in Norway, as a Fulbright Scholar. He received a
Doctor of Philosophy in geology from
Harvard University in 1964, based on his geological field studies in Norway.
NASA career Before joining
NASA as a member of the
first group of scientist-astronauts in June 1965, Schmitt worked at the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Center at
Flagstaff, Arizona, developing geological field techniques that would be used by the Apollo crews. Following his selection, Schmitt spent his first year at
Air Force UPT learning to become a jet pilot. Upon his return to the astronaut corps in Houston, he played a key role in training Apollo crews to be
geologic observers when they were in lunar orbit and competent geologic field workers when they were on the lunar surface. After each of the landing missions, he participated in the examination and evaluation of the returned lunar samples and helped the crews with the scientific aspects of their mission reports. Schmitt spent considerable time becoming proficient in the
CSM and
LM systems. In March 1970 he became the first of the scientist-astronauts to be assigned to space flight, joining
Richard F. Gordon Jr. (Commander) and
Vance Brand (Command Module Pilot) on the
Apollo 15 backup crew. The flight rotation put these three in line to fly as prime crew on the third following mission, Apollo 18. When
Apollo 18 and Apollo 19 were canceled in September 1970, the community of lunar
geologists supporting Apollo felt so strongly about the need to land a professional geologist on the Moon, that they pressured
NASA to reassign Schmitt to a remaining flight. As a result, Schmitt was assigned in August 1971 to fly on
Apollo 17, replacing
Joe Engle as Lunar Module Pilot. Schmitt landed on the Moon with commander
Gene Cernan in December 1972. Schmitt claims to have taken the photograph of the
Earth known as
The Blue Marble, one of the
most widely distributed photographic images in existence. His Apollo 17 crewmates,
Gene Cernan (Mission Commander) and
Ronald Evans (Command Module Pilot), have made the same claim, and NASA's official position is to credit all three together. While on the Moon's surface, Schmitt—the only geologist in the astronaut corps—collected the rock sample designated
Troctolite 76535, which has been called "without doubt the most interesting sample returned from the Moon". Among other distinctions, it is the central piece of evidence suggesting that the Moon once possessed an active magnetic field. As he returned to the Lunar Module before Cernan, Schmitt is the next-to-last person to have walked on the Moon's surface. Since the death of Cernan in 2017, Schmitt is the most recent person to have walked on the Moon who is still alive. After the completion of the Apollo 17 mission, Schmitt played an active role in documenting the Apollo geologic results and also took on the task of organizing NASA's Energy Program Office. On April 29, 2018, the Schmitt Space Communicator SC-1x named in his honor was carried aboard the
Blue Origin New Shepard crew capsule in a project partly funded by NASA. It launched the first commercial two-way data and
Wi-Fi hotspot service in space and sent the first commercial
Twitter message from space. The device was developed by
Solstar, which Schmitt had joined as an advisor, and launched above the Earth's surface, just past the
edge of space, as a technology demonstration. The device was admitted to the
Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. File:Astronaut Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt, American Flag, and Earth (Apollo 17 EVA-1).jpg|Schmitt poses by the
American flag, with
Earth in the background, during
Apollo 17's first
EVA. File:Schmitt Covered with Lunar Dirt - GPN-2000-001124.jpg|Schmitt collects lunar specimens during the Apollo 17 mission. File:Ap17 schmitt falls.ogv|Schmitt falls while on a Moonwalk. File:Ap17 strolling.ogv|Astronauts Harrison Schmitt and
Eugene Cernan singing "
While Strolling Through the Park One Day" on the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission File:The Blue Marble, AS17-148-22727.jpg|
The Blue Marble, an iconic photograph of Earth, is credited to the three crewmen of Apollo 17
Senate career in
Roswell, New Mexico, October 1982 On August 30, 1975, Schmitt retired from NASA to seek election as a
Republican to the
United States Senate representing
New Mexico in the
1976 election. The astronaut-politician campaigned for fourteen months, and his campaign focused on the future. In the election, Schmitt opposed two-term Democratic incumbent
Joseph Montoya. He defeated Montoya 57% to 43%. Schmitt served one term and, notably, was the chairman of the Science, Technology, and Space Subcommittee of the
United States Senate Committee on Commerce. He sought a second term in
1982, facing state Attorney General
Jeff Bingaman. Bingaman criticized Schmitt for not paying enough attention to local matters; his campaign slogan asked, "What on Earth has he done for you lately?" This, combined with the deep recession, proved too much for Schmitt to overcome; he was defeated, 54% to 46%.
Post-Senate career Following his Senate term, Schmitt has been a consultant in business, geology, space, and public policy. Schmitt is an adjunct professor of engineering physics at the
University of Wisconsin–Madison, and has long been a proponent of lunar resource utilization. In 1997 he proposed the Interlune InterMars Initiative, listing among its goals the advancement of private-sector acquisition and use of lunar resources, particularly lunar
helium-3 as a fuel for notional
nuclear fusion reactors. 's signing of Space Policy Directive-1, directing NASA to resume human flight to the Moon and beyond Schmitt was chair of the
NASA Advisory Council, whose mandate is to provide technical advice to the NASA Administrator, from November 2005 until his abrupt resignation on October 16, 2008. In November 2008, he quit the Planetary Society over policy advocacy differences, citing the organization's statements on "focusing on Mars as the driving goal of human spaceflight" (Schmitt said that going back to the Moon would speed progress toward a crewed Mars mission), on "accelerating research into global climate change through more comprehensive Earth observations" (Schmitt voiced objections to the notion of a present "scientific consensus" on climate change as any policy guide), and on international cooperation (which he felt would retard rather than accelerate progress), among other points of divergence. Schmitt also serves as a visiting senior research scientist at the
Florida Institute for Human & Machine Cognition. In January 2011, he was appointed as secretary of the
New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department in the cabinet of Governor
Susana Martinez, but was forced to give up the appointment the following month after refusing to submit to a required background investigation.
El Paso Times called him the "most celebrated" candidate for New Mexico energy secretary. Schmitt wrote a book entitled
Return to the Moon: Exploration, Enterprise, and Energy in the Human Settlement of Space in 2006. Schmitt is also involved in several civic projects, including the improvement of the Senator Harrison H. Schmitt Big Sky Hang Glider Park in
Albuquerque, New Mexico. == Views on climate change ==