For related articles and more information, please visit OCA’s Politics and Democracy page and our Planting Peace page.

On Feb. 5, 1971, Edgar Mitchell became the sixth of only 12 men to step on the moon. Of that elite dozen, which included Buzz Aldrin and the late Neil Armstrong 44 years ago this week, Mitchell is the only one to go on record about his controversial belief in extraterrestrial UFOs — and of a possible government cover-up.

Mitchell, 82, is no dummy. While on active duty as a test pilot for the U.S. Navy, he completed an M.S. in aeronautical engineering at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School and a doctorate in aeronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mitchell also served in combat during the Korean War as a fighter pilot. In 1970, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

After retiring from NASA in 1972, he founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences and later wrote “The Way of the Explorer” to document his experiences with mysticism and space.

I recently spoke on the telephone with the retired U.S. Navy Captain from his home in West Palm Beach, Florida. He was lucid and convincing with his heavy southern drawl, and just a little guarded.

Clash: Let’s start with the moon. Did you know your Apollo 14 crewmate Alan Shepard was going to “tee off” up there?

Moon Golf

Mitchell: Yes, I knew before it happened. But I didn’t know quite when he was going to fit it in. After we had rolled up the solar wind experiment and put it in the data box, I did my javelin throw and he did a golf shot for the first “Lunar Olympics.”

They were between 50 and 55 feet, and my javelin went four inches further than his golf ball. I’ve got the pictures to prove it!

Clash: Was there any big emotion when you stepped on the moon, or was it just part of a long list of things you had to do?

Mitchell: The latter is correct. Sure it was wonderful, we were pleased to do it and it was enjoyable to be among the first, but it was just part of a checklist we had practiced week after week at Cape Kennedy. We would go through the whole routine, rewrite it and modify it again until we were comfortable with the order.

And, of course, our mission on Apollo 14 was to be the first to do science on the moon, so we had to be careful about getting everything in during the allotted time. Apollo 11 and 12 were more to prove physically we could get (astronauts) down to the surface, then back safely to Earth.

Mars Base

Clash: Do you believe we need to establish a base on the moon before sending humans to Mars, as some of your fellow Apollo astronauts do?

Mitchell: I don’t think there is much value in trying to use the moon as a base to go to Mars. That’s going into one gravity belt and having to get back out of it again. And the moon doesn’t have a lot to offer as a resource base.

There is something we could mine there, I’m sure, but there are better ways to do it. We do need different types of propulsion to get to Mars. I wrote one of the first Ph.D. theses on that in the 1960s.

Clash: You’re also known for your views on UFOs. What’s your experience regarding the Roswell, New Mexico, incident of 1947?

Mitchell: After my space flight, I was contacted by descendants of the original Roswell observers, including the person who delivered the child-sized coffins to the Air Force to contain alien bodies. Another was one of the children of the deputy sheriff who was patrolling traffic around the site.