By Tom Hintgen

Otter Tail County Correspondent

Former astronaut Harrison (Jack) Schmitt, a retired geologist and resident of New Mexico who oftentimes stayed at a family cabin at West Battle Lake, was again in the national spotlight on April 1. This came about close to 53 years after landing on the moon.  ¶  Schmitt, interviewed by CBS TV hosts, provided his thoughts about the four-person crew which headed to outer space with plans to circle around the moon and return to earth. Their mission was planned as preparation for the United States lunar landing two years from now, in 2028.  ¶  Until this year, Schmitt’s December 1972 Apollo 17 mission was the sixth and last U.S. successful trip to the moon.  ¶  On April 1 Schmitt provided insights surrounding the launch of the Artemis II mission, offering his perspective as the last geologist to walk on the moon. Schmitt, now 90, expressed the importance of the Artemis II program for the future of space exploration.

He told the national TV audience that the current space mission to the moon, for the four astronauts, will be a new and cherished experience “every day, every hour and every minute.”

Schmitt’s participation in these lunar discussions highlighted the transition from the Apollo era of the 1960s and 1970s to the new and current Artemis program, which aims to return humans to the moon in 2028.

Schmitt looks back to 1972 moon landing

 The Apollo 17 three-member crew, in December 1972, included Harrison (Jack) Schmitt, Eugene Cernan and command module pilot Ronald Evans. While Evans orbited the moon in the command module, Schmitt and Cernan descended to the moon in the lunar module. Schmitt, a geologist, collected moon rocks.

Six months later Schmitt, the 12th and final person to set foot on the moon, walked along the shores of West Battle Lake during summer evening hours and looked at the moon where he had walked, 238,855 miles away.

The Schmitt family cabin at West Battle Lake dates back to the 1950s when Schmitt’s late father, then a resident of southern Minnesota, purchased property at West Battle Lake. The future astronaut was raised in New Mexico and the family maintained the lake cabin over the years.

Near the Schmitt cabin on the north side of West Battle Lake is a lake cabin once owned by Jim Gray, the late newsroom editor of the Fergus Falls Daily Journal. Gray became a good friend of Schmitt. Gray attended the December 1972 moon launch in Florida along with the late Chuck Underwood, publisher of the Daily Journal.

Schmitt, after his years as an astronaut, became a consultant in business, geology, space and public policy. He served as a member of the U.S. Senate, representing New Mexico, from 1977 to 1983. He took pride following in the footsteps of astronaut Neil Armstrong.

On July 20, 1969, Armstrong was part of Apollo 11 and was the first man to set foot on the moon. He famously said, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”