NASA Astronaut Edgar Mitchell died

NASA Astronaut Edgar Mitchell, who was the sixth man to walk on the Moon, died on 4 February 2016 in West Palm Beach, Florida. The lunar module pilot on Apollo 14 died at the age of 85.

His death occurred on the eve of the 45th anniversary of his lunar landing, which took place on 5 February 1971.

Mitchell, Alan Shepard and Stuart Roosa were the crew of Apollo 14 mission, which launched on the lunar surface on 5 February 1971. As part of the Apollo 14 mission, he spent more than nine hours on the Moon's surface collecting rocks, taking measurements and other things. Mitchell helped collect 94 pounds of lunar rock and soil samples that were distributed across 187 scientific teams in the United States and 14 other countries for analysis.

Mitchell along with commander Alan Shephard set mission records for the time of the longest distance traversed on the lunar surface; the largest payload returned from lunar surface; and the longest lunar stay time (33 hours). They were also the first to transmit color TV from the lunar surface.

He said he had an epiphany in space and later devoted his life to studying the mind and unexplained phenomena. He said he believed that aliens had visited Earth.

Mitchell left the US space agency NASA in 1972 and set up the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which aimed to support individual and collective transformation through consciousness research. He was co-founder of the Association of Space Explorers, an organization for space travelers.

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