Edgar Mitchell Edgar Dean Mitchell , Sc . D . ( born September 17 , 1930 ) is an American pilot , retired Captain in the United States Navy and NASA astronaut . As the lunar module pilot of Apollo 14 , he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region , making him the sixth person to walk on the Moon . Biography . Mitchell was born in Hereford , Texas . He was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank , Life Scout . He was also a member of DeMolay International , part of the Masonic Fraternity , and has been inducted into its Hall of Fame . Mitchell earned a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial management from Carnegie Institute of Technology in 1952 . The following year he joined the U . S . Navy , where he trained as a pilot and flew off the aircraft carrier s USS " Bon Homme Richard " and USS " Ticonderoga " . He later qualified as a research pilot and taught at the Navy ' s research pilot school . While on active duty in the Navy , he earned a Master of Science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U . S . Naval Postgraduate School and a Doctor of Science degree in aeronautics and astronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology . He currently resides in suburban West Palm Beach , Florida . Mitchell is a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity , and carried one of the order ' s badges to the Moon ; it is now kept at his home chapter of Kappa Sigma at Carnegie Mellon University . NASA career . Mitchell was selected to be an astronaut in 1966 and was seconded from the Navy to NASA . He was designated as backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 10 , and flew as lunar module pilot on Apollo 14 , where he spent nine hours working on the lunar surface in the Fra Mauro Highlands region , making him the sixth person to walk on the Moon . Apollo 14 was Mitchell ' s only spaceflight . He remained with NASA until 1972 , when he retired from the Navy . After NASA . Ed Mitchell was awarded honorary doctorates from the New Mexico State University , the University of Akron , Carnegie Mellon University and Embry - Riddle Aeronautical University . Edgar Mitchell was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1970 by President Richard Nixon . On June 29 , 2011 , the United States Government filed a lawsuit against Mitchell in the United States District Court in Miami , Florida after discovering that he possessed a camera used by the Apollo 14 crew on the moon , and had put the camera up for auction at the British auction house Bonhams . The litigation asked that the camera be returned to NASA . Mitchell ' s position was that NASA had given him the camera as a gift upon the completion of the Apollo 14 mission . Bonhams has withdrawn the camera from auction . In October , 2011 , prosecutors and Mitchell reached a settlement agreement , under which Mitchell gave up any claims to the camera and agreed to return it to NASA , which in turn would donate it for display at the National Air and Space Museum . Other interests . Mitchell ' s interests include consciousness and paranormal phenomena . On his way back to earth during the Apollo 14 flight he had a powerful savikalpa samādhi experience , and also claimed to have conducted private ESP experiments with his friends on Earth . The results of said experiments were published in the Journal of Parapsychology in 1971 . He was the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences ( IONS ) for the purpose of consciousness research and other " related phenomena . " On the Opie and Anthony radio show , Buzz Aldrin described a psychic communication experiment that Mitchell conducted during the Apollo 14 flight , wherein Mitchell attempted to transmit information to an observer on the ground . Aldrin stated that the experiment was a complete failure . Remote healing . Mitchell claims that a teenage remote healer who lives in Vancouver and uses the pseudonym Adam Dreamhealer helped him heal kidney cancer from a distance . Mitchell said that while he never had a biopsy , " I had a sonogram and MRI that was consistent with renal carcinoma . " Adam worked ( distantly ) on Mitchell from December 2003 until June 2004 , when the " irregularity was gone and we haven ' t seen it since " . Views on UFOs . Mitchell has publicly expressed his opinions that he is " 90 percent sure that many of the thousands of unidentified flying object s , or UFOs , recorded since the 1940s , belong to visitors from other planets " . " Dateline NBC " conducted an interview with Mitchell on April 19 , 1996 , during which he discussed meeting with officials from three countries who claimed to have had personal encounters with extraterrestrials . He offered his opinion that the evidence for such " alien " contact was " very strong " and " classified " by governments , who were covering up visitations and the existence of alien beings ' bodies in places such as Roswell , New Mexico . He further claimed that UFOs had provided " sonic engineering secrets " that were helpful to the U . S . government . Mitchell ' s book , " The Way of the Explorer " , discusses his journey into mysticism and space . In 2004 he told the " St . Petersburg Times " that a " cabal of insiders " in the U . S . government were studying recovered alien bodies , and that this group had stopped briefing U . S . Presidents after John F . Kennedy . He said , " We all know that UFOs are real ; now the question is where they come from . " On July 23 , 2008 Edgar Mitchell was interviewed on Kerrang Radio by Nick Margerrison . Mitchell claimed the Roswell crash was real and that aliens have contacted humans several times , but that governments have hidden the truth for 60 years , stating : " I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we ' ve been visited on this planet , and the UFO phenomenon is real . " In reply , a spokesman for NASA stated : " NASA does not track UFOs . NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe . Dr Mitchell is a great American , but we do not share his opinions on this issue . " In an interview with Fox News on July 25 , 2008 , Mitchell clarified that his comments did not involve NASA , but quoted unnamed sources , since deceased , at Roswell who confided to him that the Roswell incident did involve an alien craft . Mitchell also claims to have subsequently received confirmation from an unnamed intelligence officer at the Pentagon . Other projects . Edgar Mitchell appears in the documentaries " In the Shadow of the Moon " , " The Phoenix Lights . . . We Are Not Alone " , and " The Living Matrix " . Mitchell has written several articles and essays , as well as two books . In " The Way of the Explorer " , Mitchell proposed a dyadic model of reality . He is currently the Advisory Board Chairman of the Institute for Cooperation in Space , co - founded by Dr . Carol Rosin and is a member of INREES . Mitchell is one of the initial supporters of the Campaign for the Establishment of a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly – which would be a first step towards a " world parliament " . In media . 1998 HBO TV series " From the Earth to the Moon " – played by Gary Cole