David Randolph Scott (born June 6, 1932) is an American retired test pilot and NASA astronaut who was the seventh person to walk on the Moon.

[2] Before becoming an astronaut, Scott graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and joined the Air Force.

As an astronaut, Scott made his first flight into space as a pilot of the Gemini 8 mission, along with Neil Armstrong, in March 1966, spending just under eleven hours in low Earth orbit.

Following their return to Earth, Scott and his crewmates fell from favor with NASA after it was disclosed that they had carried four hundred unauthorized postal covers to the Moon.

[5] Scott lived his earliest years at Randolph Field, where his father was stationed, before moving to an air base in Indiana, and then in 1936 to Manila in the Philippines, then under U.S. rule.

By the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the family was living in San Antonio again; shortly thereafter Tom Scott was deployed overseas.

Determined to become a pilot like his father, David built many model airplanes and watched with fascination war films about flying.

[9] David Scott wanted an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point but lacked connections to secure one.

[10] He took a government civil service examination for competitive appointments and accepted a swimming scholarship to the University of Michigan where he was an honor student in the engineering school.

[23][24] In applying to be part of the third group of astronauts in 1963, Scott intended only a temporary detour from a mainstream military career; he expected to fly in space a couple of times and then return to the Air Force.

Mission Control was out of touch during this portion of the orbit, and the astronauts' belief that the Agena was causing the problem proved incorrect, for once they performed an emergency undocking, the spin only got worse.

[33] Gemini 8 splashed down in the Western Pacific on the day of launch; the mission lasted only ten hours, and the early termination meant that Scott's spacewalk was scrubbed.

[34] According to Francis French and Colin Burgess in their book on NASA and the Space Race, "Scott, in particular, had shown incredible presence of mind during the unexpected events of the Gemini 8 mission.

[36] Along with Armstrong, Scott received the NASA Exceptional Service Medal,[37] and the Air Force awarded him the Distinguished Flying Cross as well.

In that capacity, they spent much of their time at North American Rockwell's plant in Downey, California, where the command and service module (CSM) for that mission was under construction.

The LM was to separate from the CSM during the mission; if it failed to return, Scott would have to run the entire spacecraft for reentry, normally a three-man job.

The mission stayed in space one orbit longer than planned due to rough seas in the Atlantic Ocean recovery zone.

[55] Apollo 15 would be the first J Mission, which emphasized scientific research, with longer stays on the Moon's surface and the use of the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV).

Already having an interest in geology, Scott made time during the training for his crew to go on field trips with Caltech geologist Lee Silver.

As time dwindled towards the launch date, Scott pushed to make the field trips more like what they would encounter on the lunar surface, with mock backpacks simulating what they would wear on the Moon, and from November 1970 onwards, the training version of the LRV.

[16] After deploying the LRV from its folded-up position on the side of the LM's descent stage, Scott drove with Irwin in the direction of Hadley Rille.

After driving the LRV to a position where the camera could view Falcon's takeoff, Scott left a memorial to the astronauts and cosmonauts who had died to advance space exploration.

[68] Scott sent 100 of them to Eiermann, and in late 1971, against the astronauts' wishes, the covers were offered for sale by West German stamp dealer Hermann Sieger.

[69] The astronauts returned the money,[70] but in April 1972, Slayton learned of the unauthorized covers[71] and had Scott, Worden, and Irwin removed as backup crew members for Apollo 17.

[84] Scott found the work interesting and exciting, but with budget cuts and the forthcoming end of Approach and Landing Tests for the Space Shuttle, in 1977 he decided it was time to leave NASA[85] and retired from the agency on September 30, 1977.

[87] He was ordered to pay roughly $400,000 to investors in the partnership, which was to create technology to prevent aircraft mechanical breakdowns, but which was never developed.

He sold the Bulova watch in 2015 for $1.625 million, after which the company marketed similar timepieces, whose accompanying material mentioned Scott and Apollo 15.

[94] The case was dismissed by agreement of the parties in August 2018,[95] and in 2021, Bulova marked the fiftieth anniversary of Apollo 15 with the issuance of a commemorative watch.

[88] Deputy Administrator Robert Seamans presented Scott and Armstrong the NASA Exceptional Service Medal in 1966 for their Gemini flight.

[88][111] On August 23, 2024, he received an honorary promotion to brigadier general in recognition of his service to the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project and deputy director of the Dryden Flight Research Center.