David Randolph Scott was born on June 6, 1932, in San Antonio, Texas, a city with deep military roots that set an early context for the life he would go on to lead. A United States citizen, Scott came of age in a country still shaped by the rhythms of mid-century military service, and he moved steadily through institutions that would prepare him for a career at the edge of human exploration.

Scott's education took him through the United States Military Academy, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan, and the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School — a rigorous sequence that built his credentials as both a military officer and a test pilot. That preparation paid off in 1963, when he was selected as part of NASA's third group of astronauts. Over the years that followed, he flew to space three times, each mission adding to a record that few of his contemporaries could match. The most significant of those flights came when he commanded Apollo 15, the fourth lunar landing, which made him the seventh person to walk on the Moon.

The honors Scott received reflect the range of his service. He was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, the NASA Exceptional Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, and the United Nations Peace Medal. He has also been inducted into both the United States Astronaut Hall of Fame and the International Space Hall of Fame, recognitions that mark the scope of a career spanning military aviation and spaceflight.

Scott remains a living figure in the history of human spaceflight. He is one of four surviving Moon walkers and holds the distinction of being the only living commander of a spacecraft that landed on the Moon. That fact alone anchors his place in the record of what American astronauts accomplished during the Apollo era.