Page 31 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2019

Rosemary Roosa is capturing the historic days of the space race
between the United States and the Soviet Union in a new book called To the Moon, an autobiography which begins with her father’s launch and goes through her adventurous life.
story and photos courtesy of Rosemary Roosa
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family of six to Houston, Texas, where he trained to fly on Apollo 14. His role was unique because he was one of only six men to solo in lunar orbit while a total of 12 men walked on the moon.
He took pictures of future landing sites, which were used for Apollo 16 and 17’s moon landings. A unique item on-board his spacecraft were tiny tree seeds, which upon returning to earth were germinated and affectionally became known
as “moon trees.” Most of the moon trees were planted during the bicentennial of the United States in 1976, however I’m carrying on my dad’s legacy via the Moon Tree Foundation, which plants second-
generation moon trees around the world. On July 12 at the Kennedy Space Center, I will officially open the Moon Tree Garden at the Saturn V Center, which will honor all the Apollo missions in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.
After his career with NASA,
my father returned home to the Mississippi Gulf Coast. He passed away on December 12, 1994 and
is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
Jul
y 2019 • SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living 31
Rosemary with Astronaut Neil Armstrong.
Apollo 14 crew, Ed Mitchell, Stuart Roosa and Alan Shepard.