Apollo 15-Part I
"Guess what we just found!"
Prime Crew: David R. Scott (Commander)
James B. Irwin (Lunar Module Pilot)
Alfred M. Worden (Command Module Pilot)
Backup Crew: Richard F. "Dick" Gordon, Jr. (Commander)
Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt (Lunar Module Pilot)
Vance D. Brand (Command Module Pilot)
July 26, 1971
Lunar Landing Date: July 30, 1971
Lunar Landing Site: Hadley-Apennines Region
Lunar Stay: 66 hours 54 minutes 53 seconds
Moonwalks/EVAs: Standup EVA: 33 minutes
EVA 1: 6 hours 32 minutes
EVA 2: 7 hours 12 minutes
EVA 3: 4 hours 49 minutes
SIM Retrieval EVA: 38 minutes
74 Lunar Orbits
Spacecraft Names: CSM-112 Endeavour
LM-10 Falcon
Apollo 15 NASA Mission Transcripts (pdf files):
Onboard voice, CSM
Onboard voice, LM
Air-to-Ground voice
The Prime Crew of Apollo 15: CDR Dave Scott, CMP Al Worden, and LMP James Irwin. They are shown here with two key pieces of equipment that will get their first trial aboard Apollo 15: the world-famous Lunar Rover Vehicle (LRV), and the not-so-famous Apollo subsatellite, which would be ejected from the CSM in lunar orbit. After the cancellation of Apollos 18, 19, and 20, NASA had to move up the hard-core science missions-the "J-missions"-to 15, 16, and 17. J-missions featured upgraded spacecraft with provisions for longer lunar stays and more scientific equipment, PLSS backpacks with increased capacity for longer moonwalks, LRVs for increased range and mobility on the lunar surface, and CSMs equipped with the new Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) bay, which would require CMPs to perform a spacewalk during the transearth coast phase of the mission to retrieve the data tapes. The astronauts also wore new, improved spacesuits (compare the configuration of the blue-and-red hose connectors on these suits to those on earlier missions) in order to interface with the new PLSSs and provide increased flexibility and comfort (that's a relative term when it comes to space suits). Dave Scott was a veteran of two Earth-orbit missions-the harrowing Gemini 8 with Neil Armstrong, and the crucial Apollo 9 LM test-flight mission with Jim McDivitt and Rusty Schweickart. He, Irwin and Worden were the backups for Pete Conrad's Apollo 12 mission to the Ocean of Storms; they were the ones who put the centerfolds in Pete Conrad's and Al Bean's cuff checklists! Following the standard crew rotation, they got the prime crew assignments for Apollo 15. While this would be Dave's third flight, it would be the first one for Jim and Al. NASA Photo.
While most astronauts preferred Corvettes on the ground (L-R, Jim, Al, and Dave), the LRV was the ultimate ride on the Moon. The LRV didn't exactly handle like a normal car. It was powered by two 36-volt batteries that drove 4 quarter-horsepower electric motors, one at each wheel, for a total of 1 horsepower. It had 4-wheel steering, with the ability to steer using either the front or the rear wheels only if one system failed. It was 10 ft, 2 in long, with a track of 4 ft, a height of 44.8 in, and a 7 ft, 6 in wheelbase. It weighed about 460 lb on Earth, which translates to about 77 lb on the Moon-making 1 horsepower more than adequate! It could haul about 2 1/2 times its own weight in hard-suited astronauts and cargo. It could operate for a cumulative total of 78 hrs, giving the astronauts the ability to put about 40 mi on it. But due to the walkback limits of the PLSS backpacks (the amount of oxygen they would need to walk back to the LM if the Rover broke down), this was limited to a radius of about 6 miles from the LM. It was also equipped with a color TV camera that could be operated by remote-control from Houston. The LRV was built by Boeing's Aerospace Group at their Kent Space Center in Kent, WA. LIFE Photo.
Dave and Jim get a feel for the ol' Moonbuggy at the Cinder Lake crater field in Arizona on Nov. 2, 1970. The Commander does the driving. They are practicing precision maneuvering around crater rims. Note that this Earth-training LRV has regular rubber offroad tires; the real ones have wire-mesh tires to save weight and avoid getting clogged with lunar soil. But the wire-mesh tires were meant for the Moon, and were not ideal for a 1-G environment. NASA Photo.
The LRV is uncrated and inspected by Boeing and NASA technicians in the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building at the Cape on March 16, 1971. The Rover is designed to be folded up and stored in a special pie-wedge-shaped bay inside the Ascent Stage of the LM. The astronauts open the bay and unfold it like a big, motorized lawnchair, and then assemble the smaller bits and hook everything up. NASA Photo.
Dave and Jim, along with backups Dick Gordon and Jack Schmitt, spent a lot of time on geological field trips like this one to Taos, New Mexico. Schmitt, the only geologist-astronaut, and his old geology professor, Lee Silver, trained the astronauts to be excellent geological field observers. The CDR and LMP of any given Apollo lunar mission would have to be the eyes for the geologists working in the back rooms at Houston, who basically had nothing but radio transmissions to go by unless somebody turned on the camera on the Rover. So they had to know what they were looking at geologically, and be able to describe it all in precise geological and topographical detail. After many field trips like this, Dave lobbied for and got approved a stand-up EVA (SEVA) right after landing, in which he would stand up through the open LM docking hatch and do detailed geological observations of the landing site and its environs. Apollo 15's landing site at Hadley Rille was chosen for its potential geological content; they were hoping to find a good sample of anorthosite, a piece of the Moon's crust in the form of a crystalline rock, thrust up during the ancient formation of the Apennines-and they had to know what to look for. Al Worden and Vance Brand, the Command Module Pilots of the prime and backup crews, were also learning field observation, only from the vantage point of orbit. Their field training took the form of photographic study and observational flights in light aircraft with experts like Farouk El-Baz, an Egyptian-born topgraphic expert who worked for Bellcomm, the think-tank hired by NASA to aid in scientific matters. NASA Photo.
Jim, Al, and Dave pose for the cameras during the rollout of their vehicle from the VAB on the morning of May 11, 1971. NASA Photo.
An astronaut's preflight duties also included publicity. Here, Dave tapes a TV interview in front of the LM mockup at the Cape on June 5. (The other astronauts used to say that if NASA had an astronaut recruiting poster, Dave Scott would be on it: "Join NASA Today!") NASA Photo.
On June 9th, technicians in the Mobile Service Structure at Pad 39A get ready to install the 78.5-pound subsatellite in the SIM bay of the CSM . It carries an S-band transponder for tracking, the Particle Shadows/Boundary Layer Experiment, and the Subsatellite Magnetometer Experiment. It was 31 inches long with a hexagonal diameter of 14 inches; the solar panels folded out like flowerpetals on deployment to power the subsatellite. NASA Photo.
In addition to their field geology training, the Apollo 15 astronauts still had to spend just as much time in the sims as their predecessors, if not even more, to deal with the extra equipment. Al Worden is shown here in the Command Module Mission Simulator at the Cape on July 2, just weeks before launch. In addition to his sim and field work, Al would also be the first Apollo astronaut to perform a spacewalk (the SIM tape retrieval EVA on the way home) since Apollo 9, so he had to train in the Neutral Boyancy Tanks as well. NASA Photo.
July 26, 1971: after the obligatory breakfast of Launch Day Steak and Eggs with Deke Slayton, it's time to suit up. Al gets his suit checked out in this shot. Note that his CMP suit is slightly different from the Moon suits worn by Dave and Jim. NASA Photo.
"Clear the tower!" Dave reports as the Saturn V climbs away from Pad 39A. It's just after 9:34 AM EST. Apollo 15 is on the way to Hadley Rille. NASA Photo.
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