David Scott: podcast appearances and interviews

David Randolph Scott, born on June 6, 1932, is an American retired test pilot and NASA astronaut. He is known for being the seventh person to walk on the Moon and for commanding the Apollo 15 lunar landing mission. Scott was selected as part of NASA's third group of astronauts in 1963 and flew into space three times. His first spaceflight was as a pilot on the Gemini 8 mission in March 1966, which he shared with Neil Armstrong; the mission experienced an emergency abort before spacewalks could occur. In March 1969, Scott served as the Command Module Pilot on Apollo 9, a mission dedicated to testing the Apollo spacecraft. He subsequently served as backup for Apollo 12 and made his third and final spaceflight as the commander of Apollo 15 in July 1971. During this mission, he and James Irwin spent three days on the Moon. Scott's career in space exploration was marked by significant achievements but also controversy; after the Apollo 15 mission, it was revealed that he and his crewmates carried unauthorized postal covers to the Moon, which led to their falling out of favor with NASA. Prior to his NASA career, he graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, joined the Air Force, and served as a fighter pilot in Europe. He completed training at the Air Force Experimental Flight Test Pilot School and the Aerospace Research Pilot School, accumulating more than 5,600 flying hours before retiring from the Air Force as a colonel in 1975. Following his NASA career, Scott served as director of NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center and later worked on space-related projects and film consultancy.