Begging to Differ ...

Pointing out an error on chronita.com, on behalf of a neighbor of ours who, for a time, was quite literally 'out of this world.'

One of the widgets on my personalized iGoogle page is a 'Today in History' feature produced and maintained by the folks at Chronita. According today's post, on this day in 1972, "Apollo 17, the final mission of the series, lands on the moon with Eugene Cernan and Jack Schmitton"

Mostly true ... but not entirely. Actually, one of the last two men to set foot on the Moon - and the only scientist - was Harrison Hagan "Jack" Schmitt, Born in Santa Rita, raised in Silver City, and attending college in California, then Norway before earning a Ph.D. in geology from Harvard University in 1964. He would later enter politics - driving himself back-and-forth across the Land of Enchantment in the beat-up red pickup truck that became one of his trademarks - in his successful bid for a seat in the United States Senate.

Here is Schmitt's NASA bio and his write-up in Wikipedia, which includes audio/video of him "I Was Strolling on the Moon One Day." Just up the road from here, in the Roswell Museum and Art Center, there is a display of memorabilia from Scmitt and his service with NASA ... a nice complement to the museum's permanent Robert Goddard exhibit, and their planetarium.