Apollo 15

By Avery

Apollo 15 was the fourth mission to land men on the Moon. This mission was the first flight of the Lunar Roving Vehicle which astronauts used to explore the geology of the Hadley Rille/Apennine region. The LRV allowed Apollo 15, 16 and 17 astronauts to venture further from the Lunar Module than in previous missions.

The successful Apollo 15 manned lunar landing mission was the first in a series of three advanced missions planned for the Apollo program. Its objectives were to observe the lunar surface, survey and sample material and surface features in a selected area of the Hadley-Apennine region, set up and activate surface experiments, and conduct inflight experiments and photographic tasks from lunar orbit.

Apollo 15 LaunchThe space vehicle with a crew of David R. Scott, commander; Alfred J. Worden, command module pilot; and James B. Irwin, lunar module (LM) pilot, was launched on schedule from the NASA Kennedy Space Center, Fla., at 9:34:00 a.m. EST on July 26, 1971.

At 22:04:09 GMT on July 30, the LM descent propulsion system was fired for powered-descent initiation. The LM landed approximately 12 minutes later with sufficient propellant remaining to provide an additional hover time of 103 seconds, had it been required.

Approximately 76 kg of lunar material including soil, rock, core-tube, and deep-core samples were returned to Earth. The total distance traveled, was 27.9 km, corresponding to a map distance of approximately 25.3 km.