Editing Harrison Schmitt (section)

=== NASA career ===
Before joining [[NASA]] as a member of the [[Astronaut Group 4|first group of scientist-astronauts]] in June 1965,<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28241336/lebanon_daily_news/|title=Six Young Scientists Become US Astronauts Today at Space Center|agency=UPI|newspaper=Lebanon Daily News|location=Lebanon, Pennsylvania|date=June 29, 1965|page=17|via=Newspapers.com}}</ref> he worked at the U.S. Geological Survey's Astrogeology Center at [[Flagstaff, Arizona]],<ref name=vermontscientist>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/28637697/the_burlington_free_press/|title=Vermont Scientist May Be On Early Mission to the Moon|newspaper=The Burlington Free Press|location=Burlington, Vermont|date=June 28, 1965|page=1|via=Newspapers.com|agency=Associated Press}}</ref> developing geological field techniques that would be used by the Apollo crews. Following his selection, Schmitt spent his first year at [[U.S. Air Force|Air Force]] [[Undergraduate Pilot Training|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.<ref>{{Cite web |title=James May Speaks to Harrison Schmitt |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/james-may-speaks-to-harrison-schmitt/zvy4scw |access-date=2024-06-07 |website=BBC Archive |language=en}}</ref>

Schmitt spent considerable time becoming proficient in the [[Apollo Command/Service Module|CSM]] and [[Apollo Lunar Module|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 [[Canceled Apollo missions|Apollo 18 and Apollo 19 were canceled]] in September 1970, the community of lunar [[geologist]]s 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.<ref name=a17pre>{{cite web|title=A Running Start – Apollo 17 up to Powered Descent Initiation|url=http://next.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17.prepdi.html|publisher=Apollo Lunar Surface Journal|access-date=August 25, 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120320233958/http://next.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17.prepdi.html|archive-date=March 20, 2012}}</ref>

Schmitt claims to have taken the photograph of the [[Earth]] known as ''[[The Blue Marble]]'', one of the [[List of photographs considered the most important|most widely distributed]] photographic images in existence. His Apollo 17 crewmates, [[Gene Cernan]] (Mission Commander) and [[Ronald Evans (astronaut)|Ronald Evans]] (Command Module Pilot), have made the same claim, and NASA's official position is to credit all three together.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/04/the-blue-marble-shot-our-first-complete-photograph-of-earth/237167/|title=The Blue Marble Shot: Our First Complete Photograph of Earth|last1=Reinert|first1=Al|date=2011-04-12 |magazine=The Atlantic}}</ref>

{{Quote box|width=20em|align=right|quote="Perhaps the hardest thing to get used to on the Moon is that the sky is completely black. There's no blue at all."|source=Harrison Schmitt (2022-09-12)<ref>{{Citation |title=Harrison Schmitt - Hyde Park Civilizace {{!}} Česká televize |url=https://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10441294653-hyde-park-civilizace/222411058090910/ |date=2022-09-12 |access-date=2023-08-10 |language=cs}}</ref>}}

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".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www-curator.jsc.nasa.gov/lunar/compendium.cfm|title=Lunar Sample Compendium|author=Nancy S. Todd}}</ref> Among other distinctions, it is the central piece of evidence suggesting that the Moon once possessed an active magnetic field.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/20/science/space/20moon.html|title=Rock Suggests Early Moon's Fiery Core Churned a Magnetic Field|date=January 20, 2009|work=The New York Times}}</ref>

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.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://history.nasa.gov/alsj/a17/a17.crew.html|title=Apollo 17 Crew Information|publisher=NASA|access-date=May 23, 2023}}</ref>

On April 29, 2018, the Schmitt Space Communicator SC-1x named in his honor was carried aboard the [[Blue Origin]] [[New Shepard]] crew capsule<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gibbs |first=Yvonne |date=May 1, 2018 |title=Wi-Fi in Space, Spacecraft Technologies Launched on Blue Origin Rocket |url=http://www.nasa.gov/centers/armstrong/feature/wifi_space_spacecraft_technologies_Blue_Origin_Rocket |access-date=2023-01-13 |website=NASA}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Mishra |first=Gourav |date=February 5, 2018 |title=Here's everything you need to know about Solstar's communicator which will connect space to Earth |url=https://www.ibtimes.co.in/heres-everything-you-need-know-about-solstars-communicator-which-will-connect-space-earth-759487 |access-date=2023-01-13 |website=www.ibtimes.co.in |language=en}}</ref> in a project partly funded by NASA.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ditzler |first=Joseph |title=Space Wi-Fi startup aims to raise $1M via crowdfunding investment site |url=https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/business/space-wi-fi-startup-aims-to-raise-1m-via-crowdfunding-investment-site/article_ad343c52-9bb8-5f89-8790-a27fdf39421e.html |access-date=2023-01-13 |website=Santa Fe New Mexican |date=July 2, 2018 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=April 29, 2018 |title=New Mexico firm hopes to offer Wi-Fi for space travelers |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/business/new-mexico-firm-hopes-to-offer-wi-fi-for-space-travelers/ |access-date=2023-01-13 |website=The Seattle Times |language=en-US}}</ref> It launched the first commercial two-way data and [[Wi-Fi hotspot]] service in space and sent the first commercial [[Twitter]] message from space.<ref>{{Cite web |title=How Humans Will Bring the Internet to Space |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/how-humans-will-bring-the-internet-to-space/ |access-date=2023-01-13 |website=Vice.com |date=July 3, 2019 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Apogee 351,000 Feet |url=https://www.blueorigin.com/news/apogee-351-000-feet |access-date=2023-01-13 |website=Blue Origin |language=en-US}}</ref> The {{convert|3|lb|spell=in|adj=on}} device was developed by [[Solstar]], which Schmitt had joined as an advisor, and launched {{convert|66|mi}} above the Earth's surface, just past the [[Kármán line|edge of space]], as a technology demonstration. The device was admitted to the [[Smithsonian Institution|Smithsonian]] [[National Air and Space Museum]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=November 16, 2019 |title=MSUA Member Interview. Brian Barnett, Founder & CEO, Solstar Space |url=https://www.msua.org/single-post/2019/11/15/msua-member-interview-brian-barnett-founder-ceo-solstar-space |access-date=2023-01-13 |website=msua |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=That Space Podcast: Solstar Space Co. CEO Brian Barnett |url=https://thatspacepodcast.libsyn.com/wifi-in-space-with-brian-barnett |access-date=2023-01-13 |website=thatspacepodcast.libsyn.com |language=en}}</ref>

<gallery>
File:Astronaut Harrison 'Jack' Schmitt, American Flag, and Earth (Apollo 17 EVA-1).jpg|Schmitt poses by the [[Lunar Flag Assembly|American flag]], with [[Earth]] in the background, during [[Apollo 17]]'s first [[extra-vehicular activity|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 "[[The Fountain in the Park|While Strolling Through the Park One Day]]" on the Moon during the Apollo 17 mission
File:The Earth seen from Apollo 17.jpg|''[[The Blue Marble]]'', an iconic photograph of Earth, is credited to the three crewmen of Apollo 17
</gallery>