MIAMI: US astronaut Edgar Mitchell, one of just 12 people to have walked on the Moon, has died aged 85, his family and Nasa said on Friday, calling him a “pioneer”.

Nasa paid glowing tribute to Mitchell, who died in Florida after a brief illness late on Thursday, the eve of the 45th anniversary of his lunar landing.

The late astronaut was a member of the 1971 Apollo 14 mission along with Alan Shepard Jr. and Stuart Roosa.

Mitchell was the last Apollo 14 survivor: Roosa died in 1994 and Shepard in 1998.

Speaking in a 1997 interview for Nasa’s oral history programme, Mitchell said that he was drawn to spaceflight after president John F. Kennedy’s call to send astronauts to the Moon.

“That’s what I wanted because it was the bear going over the mountain to see what he could see, and what could you learn, and I’ve been devoted to that, to exploration, education and discovery since my earliest years, and that’s what kept me going,” Mitchell said.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2016

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