Rusty Schweickart was born October 25, 1935, in Neptune Township, New Jersey, and grew up on a "hardscrabble" farm of 45 acres (18 ha) producing hay and vegetables plus raising poultry and cows.

[2] His family's stated annual income when he received his Massachusetts Institute of Technology scholarship after graduating high school was listed as $1800 (equivalent to $20,653 in 2023).

Schweickart spent just over 241 hours in space, and performed the first extravehicular activity (EVA) of the Apollo program, testing the portable life support system that was later used by the twelve astronauts who walked on the Moon.

During a five-minute pause tethered outside his spacecraft, Schweickart felt he underwent a metaphysical experience as he stared at the Earth, contemplating its place in the universe.

"[14] Following his mission, Schweickart "basically called the shot that I really didn't want to be assigned to a flight until we knew more about motion sickness" and became "[a] motion sickness guinea pig" for six months; while "[he] didn't learn that much" during the testing, it is now accepted that as many as half of space travelers suffer from space adaptation syndrome to some extent.

"[14][16] During this period, a Houston radio broadcaster characterized Schweickart as "the closest thing to a freak astronaut" after he was photographed escorting Maharishi Mahesh Yogi on a tour of NASA's headquarters.

'"[19] While retaining his flight status, he was reassigned to NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. as Director of User Affairs in the Office of Applications in 1974.

He came to regard this as a "thankless position" and a "very hard sell" to potential clients due to their intrinsic resistance to new processes; this and the dearth of immediate flight opportunities ultimately precipitated his departure from NASA in 1977.

[2][3] Inspired by his friendship with Michael Murphy and involvement in the Esalen Institute's Soviet-American Exchange Program, Schweickart established the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) in 1984–85 along with cosmonauts Alexei Leonov, Vitaly Sevastyanov, and Georgi Grechko; the organization is open to all people who have flown in orbit around the Earth.

Schweickart led CTA's efforts in developing the GEMnet system, a second generation LEO communication satellite constellation designed to provide regular commercial electronic messaging services on a global basis.

and in 2010 served as the co-chairman, along with astronaut Tom Jones, NASA Advisory Council's ad hoc Task Force on Planetary Defense.

[23] He has been an advocate of increasing NASA's annual budget by $250M–$300M over a 10-year period to more fully catalog the NEOs that can pose a threat to Earth and also provide a deflection capability.

In 1973, Schweickart was also awarded the NASA Exceptional Service Medal for his leadership role in the Skylab rescue efforts.

[31] In 1892, his grandfather Jacques Schweickart emigrated[32][33] from Lembach, a small town located in Alsace, France, to the United States.

[34] He also appeared in the television series The Universe in the episodes "The End of the Earth: Deep Space Threats to Our Planet" and "Stopping Armageddon".