Editing Rusty Schweickart (section)

== Military and NASA career ==
[[File:Astronaut Rusty Schweickart with F-86 1963.jpg|thumb|left|Schweickart standing in front of his [[North American F-86 Sabre]] in 1963]]

Schweickart served in the [[U.S. Air Force]] and [[Massachusetts Air National Guard]] ([[101st Tactical Fighter Squadron]]) from 1956 to 1963, with over 4,000 hours of flight time, including 3,500 hours in high performance [[jet aircraft]].<ref name="NASA-bio Rusty Schweickart"/>

Prior to joining NASA, Schweickart was a [[research scientist]] at the Experimental Astronomy Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his work there involved research upper [[atmospheric physics]], star tracking and stabilization of stellar images.<ref name="nmmuseum" /> His thesis for a master's degree at MIT concerned stratospheric radiance.<ref name="NASA-bio Rusty Schweickart" />

Schweickart was chosen as part of [[NASA Astronaut Group 3]] in October 1963.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15527410/|title=14 Hold an American Dream|newspaper=Press and Sun-Bulletin|date=October 19, 1963|page=7|via=[[Newspapers.com]]|access-date=December 2, 2017|archive-date=October 17, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231017021840/https://www.newspapers.com/article/press-and-sun-bulletin-astronaut-group-3/15527410/|url-status=live}}</ref> He was the youngest in the group. The third group of astronauts performed jungle training. Schweickart partnered with [[Clifton Williams]].<ref name="burgessdoolan">{{cite book |last1=Burgess |first1=Colin |last2=Doolan |first2=Kate |last3=Vis |first3=Bert |title=Fallen Astronauts: Heroes Who Died Reaching for the Moon |date=2016 |publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]] |isbn=978-0803285095 |pages=313–314}}</ref> On March 21, 1966, he was named as the backup pilot for [[Roger B. Chaffee]] on [[Apollo 1]]—which was to have been the first crewed Apollo flight but was destroyed during a ground test accident. His fellow crewmen were backup Command Pilot [[James McDivitt]] and Senior Pilot [[David Scott]], both veterans of  [[Project Gemini]].<ref name="crews">{{cite web |title=Apollo 1 Prime and Backup Crews |url=https://images.nasa.gov/details-S66-30238 |website=NASA Image and Video Library |publisher=[[NASA]] |access-date=December 2, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210428065208/https://images.nasa.gov/details-S66-30238 |archive-date=April 28, 2021 |date=April 1, 1966 |url-status=live}}</ref>  In December 1966, this crew was promoted to fly the first crewed Earth orbital test of the [[Apollo Lunar Module]] (LM), with Schweickart as Lunar Module Pilot.<ref name="space">{{cite web|url=https://www.space.com/17616-apollo-9.html|title=Apollo 9: The Lunar Module Flies|last1=Howell|first1=Elizabeth|date=September 12, 2014|publisher=Space.com|access-date=December 2, 2017|archive-date=December 4, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171204114537/https://www.space.com/17616-apollo-9.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Spaceflight experience ===
{{Main|Apollo 9}}
{{Quote box|The frontier in space, embodied in the space colony, is one in which the interactions between humans and their environment is so much more sensitive and interactive and less tolerant of irresponsibility than it is on the whole surface of the Earth. We are going to learn how to relate to the Earth and our own natural environment here by looking seriously at space colony ecologies.|width=25%|salign=right|source=Rusty Schweickart<ref name="nmmuseum">{{cite web|url=http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=82|publisher=[[New Mexico Museum of Space History]]|title=Lunar Module Pilot on Apollo 9 Mission |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201033842/http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/halloffame/detail.php?id=82 |archive-date=December 1, 2017 |url-status=deviated |access-date=November 20, 2017}}</ref>}}

[[Apollo 9]] was flown 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 twelve astronauts who walked on the Moon. The flight plan called for him to demonstrate an emergency transfer from the lunar module to the [[Apollo command and service module|command module]] (CM) using handrails on the LM, but he began to suffer from [[space adaptation syndrome]] on the first day in orbit, forcing the postponement of the EVA.<ref name="space" />

[[File:Schweickart spacer kosmiczny GPN-2000-001108.jpg|thumb|Schweickart performs an EVA standing on the lunar module porch, photographed by fellow astronaut James McDivitt inside the LM.]]

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. During a five-minute pause tethered outside his spacecraft, Schweickart felt he underwent a metaphysical experience as he stared at the Earth, contemplating its place in the universe.<ref name="Pacific Sun-2004.07.07" /> He subsequently practiced [[Transcendental Meditation technique|Transcendental Meditation]] based on his experience.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Klapp|first1=Orrin Edgar|title=Opening and Closing|year=1978|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|page=185|isbn=978-0521293112|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lV04AAAAIAAJ&q=Rusty+Schweickart+transcendental+meditation&pg=PA185|access-date=September 16, 2015|quote=An Apollo 14 veteran, Rusty Schweickart, took up transcendental meditation, saying, 'I'm not the same man. None of us are.'|archive-date=October 17, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231017021914/https://books.google.com/books?id=lV04AAAAIAAJ&q=Rusty+Schweickart+transcendental+meditation&pg=PA185#v=snippet&q=Rusty%20Schweickart%20transcendental%20meditation&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Tribbe|first1=Matthew D.|title=No Requiem for the Space Age: The Apollo Moon Landings and American Culture|date=2014|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=195|isbn=978-0199313525|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PV-RAwAAQBAJ&q=Rusty+Schweickart+transcendental+meditation|access-date=September 16, 2015|quote=Consider Rusty Schweickart. ... By 1972 he had ... taken up Transcendental Meditation, and was pictured in ''Time'' escorting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi ... on a tour through NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center|archive-date=October 17, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231017021830/https://books.google.com/books?id=PV-RAwAAQBAJ&q=Rusty+Schweickart+transcendental+meditation#v=snippet&q=Rusty%20Schweickart%20transcendental%20meditation&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Skylab and beyond ===
Although [[Deke Slayton]] (who was responsible for all flight assignments as Director of Flight Crew Operations) opined that Schweickart "would have been a logical lunar module pilot" on subsequent lunar missions—indeed, the standard rotation of the era would have placed him on the backup crew for [[Apollo 12]] and the prime crew of [[Apollo 15]]<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~oard/apollo/poss_moonwalkers.html|title=The Moonwalkers Who Could have Been|last1=Oard|first1=Doug|access-date=May 22, 2016|archive-date=April 12, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160412024509/http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~oard/apollo/poss_moonwalkers.html|url-status=live}}</ref> —"that bout of space sickness had everybody worried ... it didn't seem like a good idea to put him back in ... at this point."<ref name="books.google.com">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_S-PoBi8Eu8C&q=rusty+apollo+applications|title=Deke! U.S. Manned Space From Mercury To the Shuttle|last1=Slayton|first1=Donald|last2=Cassutt|first2=Michael|year=1995|publisher=Tom Doherty Associates|isbn=978-1466802148|access-date=October 20, 2020|archive-date=October 17, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231017021853/https://books.google.com/books?id=_S-PoBi8Eu8C&q=rusty+apollo+applications#v=snippet&q=rusty%20apollo%20applications&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref> Following his mission, Schweickart "basically called the shot that I really didn't want to be assigned to a flight until we knew more about motion sickness" and became "[a] motion sickness guinea pig" for six months; while "[he] didn't learn that much" during the testing, it is now accepted that as many as half of space travelers suffer from space adaptation syndrome to some extent.<ref>{{cite journal | first = Tony | last = Quine |  title = Addicted to space: An appreciation of Anousheh Ansari, Part II | journal = Spaceflight | publisher = [[British Interplanetary Society]] (BIS) | issn = 0038-6340 | volume = 49 |date=April 2007 | pages = 144 | issue = 4}}</ref>

The protracted testing period also contributed to Schweickart not being assigned to the Apollo 12 backup crew. When he returned to Houston, "[[Al Shepard]] [Slayton's deputy], for whatever reason, instead of putting me back on Apollo, put me on to [[Skylab]] ... Al had his own agenda of who went where and whatnot. So I cycled into Skylab at the time."<ref name="jsc.nasa.gov">{{Cite web|url=http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/SchweickartRL/RLS_10-19-99.pdf|title=NASA – Johnson Space Center History|date=February 11, 2015|access-date=May 22, 2016|archive-date=January 28, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170128113608/https://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/SchweickartRL/RLS_10-19-99.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> Schweickart has also observed that he was "not one of Al's boys", alluding to the political  [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberalism]] that he shared with his then-wife, Clare; Slayton felt that her fervent political stances (including [[civil rights]] activism) "caused him a few problems with his colleagues."<ref name="books.google.com"/><ref name="jsc.nasa.gov"/> During this period, a Houston radio broadcaster characterized Schweickart as "the closest thing to a [[freak scene|freak]] astronaut" after he was photographed escorting [[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]] on a tour of NASA's headquarters.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PV-RAwAAQBAJ&q=freak+astronaut&pg=PA195|title=No Requiem for the Space Age: The Apollo Moon Landings and American Culture|last1=Tribbe|first1=Matthew|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2014|isbn=978-0199313525|access-date=October 20, 2020|archive-date=October 17, 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231017021831/https://books.google.com/books?id=PV-RAwAAQBAJ&q=freak+astronaut&pg=PA195#v=snippet&q=freak%20astronaut&f=false|url-status=live}}</ref>

Along with backup science pilot [[Story Musgrave]] and backup pilot [[Bruce McCandless II]], Schweickart was assigned as backup commander of [[Skylab 2]], the first crewed American [[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 that saved the space station.<ref name="SP400ch4">{{cite web |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-400/ch4.htm |title=SP-400 Skylab, Our First Space Station |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |year=1977 |publisher=[[NASA]] |access-date=May 8, 2013 |archive-date=February 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130225153426/http://history.nasa.gov/SP-400/ch4.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

After serving on the support crew of [[Skylab 4]], Schweickart was more interested in cultivating managerial skills than "[going] over to the [[Space Shuttle]] development work which was under way ... by that time, I had, you know, done a lot of work on Gemini in a support role, and then, of course, everything on Apollo, and now all of this on Skylab, and to go cycle back into the very beginning of the Space Shuttle, which was not going to fly for, at that point, something like six years and best guess of anybody in the business was maybe eight years, I figured, you know, another eight years of basically going to the same kinds of meetings, making the same kinds of decisions, going to the same places ... it was like 'been there, done that.'"<ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite web|url=http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/SchweickartRL/SchweickartRL_3-8-00.htm|title=NASA Johnson Space Center Oral History Project Edited Oral History Transcript|date=February 11, 2015|access-date=May 22, 2016|archive-date=June 16, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160616222944/http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/SchweickartRL/SchweickartRL_3-8-00.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>

While retaining his flight status, he was reassigned to NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. as Director of User Affairs in the Office of Applications in 1974. In this capacity, he was responsible for transferring NASA technology (primarily [[Landsat 1]] applications) to the outside world and working with technology users (including the [[U.S. Department of Agriculture]] and water resources managers) to bring an understanding of their needs into NASA. He came to regard this as a "thankless position" and a "very hard sell" to potential clients due to their intrinsic resistance to new processes; this and the dearth of immediate flight opportunities ultimately precipitated his departure from NASA in 1977.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>