Mitchell, Edgar Dean (1930-2016), a United States astronaut, was the lunar module pilot on the Apollo 14 space flight. In February 1971, this flight made the third manned landing on the moon.
Mitchell was born in Hereford, Texas, on Sept. 17, 1930. He received a bachelor’s degree from the Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University) in 1952 and from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1961. In 1964, Mitchell earned a doctor’s degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mitchell entered the U.S. Navy in 1952 and became an officer in 1953. The next year, he graduated first in his class from the Aerospace Research Pilot School. In 1964, he was assigned to the Navy Field Office of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. In 1966, Mitchell was selected to be an astronaut. He retired from the Navy and the space program in 1972. In 1973, he cofounded the Institute of Noetic Sciences, a nonprofit organization in Petaluma, California, that conducts research on human potential and human consciousness. He co-wrote Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science (1974) and The Way of the Explorer: An Apollo Astronaut’s Journey Through the Material and Mystical Worlds (1996). Mitchell died on Feb. 4, 2016.
