Stuart A. Roosa

Stuart A. Roosa (born August 16, 1933, Durango, Colorado, U.S.—died December 12, 1994, Falls Church, Virginia.) was an American astronaut. Roosa participated in the Apollo 14 mission (January 31–February 9, 1971), in which the uplands region of the Moon, 15 miles (24 km) north of the Fra Mauro crater, was explored. While he orbited overhead in the Command Module, Commander Alan B. Shepard, Jr. and Edgar D. Mitchell landed on the Moon. While in orbit Roosa kept 500 seeds in his personal effects at the request of the U.S. Forest Service; many of the subsequent “Moon trees” were distributed during the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.

After spending two years at Oklahoma A & M College, Stillwater, Roosa joined the U.S. Air Force in 1953. Two years later he resumed his studies at the University of Colorado, Boulder, which awarded him a B.S. degree in aeronautical engineering. He piloted both standard and experimental aircraft before becoming an astronaut in 1966. After 1976, when Roosa left the space program, he held a series of executive positions in private businesses in Greece and the United States.