Rusty Schweickart

Vocation

Notable

Traits

American astronaut on the Apollo 9 mission in March 1969. After he circled the earth for three days in the first manned flight test of the lunar landing module that would later touch down on the moon, he was strongly moved by the sight of the planet. This led him to environmental work, then to being special science advisor to California Gov. Jerry Brown, and in mid-1979, to the post of chairman of the state's independent Energy Commission. The group is concerned with long-range energy planning and conservation and the chairman practices its creed. The Schweickart home in Sacramento has no air-conditioning and is being heated by wood he chops and splits. He usually rides his bicycle to work, a five-mile round trip. Schweickart is not really opposed to nuclear power, as Brown is, but he calls it "a technology which has suffered from poor design" and he does not think it is worth the investment. "In California at least," he says, "we can do without further nuclear power." Link to Wikipedia biography