Scott, David Randolph (1932-…), a United States astronaut, commanded the Apollo 15 mission that made the fourth manned landing on the moon. Scott and astronaut James B. Irwin landed in the lunar module Falcon on July 30, 1971, and stayed for nearly 67 hours. Alfred M. Worden, the third crew member, remained in lunar orbit in the command module Endeavour. Scott and Irwin explored the moon in the area of a canyon called the Hadley Rille in the Apennine Mountains. The two astronauts collected rock and soil samples.
Scott was born on June 6, 1932, in San Antonio, Texas. He entered the Air Force in 1954 after graduating from the U.S. Military Academy. He became an astronaut in 1963. In 1966, he piloted the Gemini 8 mission with astronaut Neil A. Armstrong. Scott served as command module pilot on the Apollo 9 mission in 1969. He left the astronaut corps in 1972. From 1975 to 1977, Scott served as director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base in California. In 1977, he founded his own technology company, Scott Science and Technology, Inc. His dual biography with Soviet cosmonaut Alex Leonov, Two Sides of the Moon: Our Story of the Cold War Space Race, was published in 2004.
