His full name is Russel Louis Schweickart. But everyone calls him ‘Rusty’. With his Apollo 9 mission, he thoroughly prepared for the first landing on the moon in the spring of 1969. Rusty tested the very first lunar lander - Spider - in low Earth orbit. And he already tried on the spacesuit that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin of Apollo 11 would walk on the moon in. A second space mission did not materialise. So, Rusty worked tirelessly here on Earth on themes that are important to him: peaceful international cooperation and our protection from asteroids from space. Did you know this about Rusty? - Rusty was selected as an astronaut in 1963. He was a member of the third group of astronauts NASA recruited. - Before becoming an astronaut, Rusty was a jet fighter pilot in the US Air Force. - During the Apollo 9 mission, he became space sick. Partly because of this, he would not fly a second mission. Only later did it become known that half of all astronauts experience space sickness. - As a child, he lived on a farm in New Jersey. At the time, he wanted nothing more than to be a pilot and a cowboy. - After his career as an astronaut, Rusty worked in politics and business. His specialisms were science, engineering, and our energy future. - Rusty co-founded the ASE, the international club of astronauts. And the B612 Foundation. This foundation aims to protect Earth from asteroid impacts.