Gestern, einen Tag vor dem heutigen 45. Jahrestag der Landung von Apollo 14 auf dem Mond, verstarb NASA Astronaut Edgar Mitchell im Alter von 85 Jahren. Nach Alan Shepard war Mitchell der sechste Mann, der auf dem Mond rumhüpfte. Nach seiner Karriere bei der NASA warf er regelmäßig der US-Regierung vor, die Existenz von Außerirdischen zu vertuschen. Hihi. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden zum Tode Mitchells:

On behalf of the entire NASA family, I would like to express my condolences to the family and friends of NASA astronaut Edgar Mitchell. As a member of the Apollo 14 crew, Edgar is one of only 12 men to walk on the moon and he helped to change how we view our place in the universe. Edgar spoke poetically about seeing our home planet from the moon saying: ‘Suddenly, from behind the rim of the moon, in long, slow-motion moments of immense majesty, there emerges a sparkling blue and white jewel, a light, delicate sky-blue sphere laced with slowly swirling veils of white, rising gradually like a small pearl in a thick sea of black mystery. It takes more than a moment to fully realize this is Earth … home.’ He believed in exploration, having been drawn to NASA by President Kennedy’s call to send humans to the moon. He is one of the pioneers in space exploration on whose shoulders we now stand.

Mitchell wird uns nicht nur auf Grund seiner Taten und Alien-Mätzchen in Erinnerung bleiben, sondern auch wegen dem fantastischsten Zitat eines Astronauten zum Overview-Effects:

You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.