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Forum:	Mercury - Gemini - Apollo
Topic:	Apollo 15 50th anniversary (7.26-8.7.1971)

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Your Reply: HTML is ON UBB Code is ON Smilies Legend	[QUOTE]Originally posted by Blackarrow: [B] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Headshot: [b]Fifty years! Where does the time go?[/b][/QUOTE] Where indeed? I remember like it was yesterday playing a ball-game in our neighbours' back garden that sunny afternoon in 1971. I kept checking my watch, and at about 2 o'clock local time I went back home and planted myself in front of the colour TV (with a "gigantic" 25 inch screen) to watch the BBC live coverage of the launch. I still have my original live audio recording, which I listened to this afternoon. Magical times![/B][/QUOTE]
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<table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="600"><TR><td bgcolor="#000000"><TABLE BORDER=0 cellpadding=4 border=0 cellspacing=1 WIDTH="100%"><TR bgcolor="#660000"><TD COLSPAN=2><CENTER><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#ffffff" FACE="sans-serif">T O P I C     R E V I E W</font></CENTER></TD></TR><TR bgcolor="#494949"><TD valign=top><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="sans-serif">Robert Pearlman</FONT></TD><TD><FONT SIZE="2" FACE="sans-serif">NASA video <blockquote><font size="+0"><B>Apollo 15: 'Never Been on a Ride like this Before'</B></font><P>Our first wheels on the moon. On the Apollo 15 mission, the lunar roving vehicle allowed the astronauts to cover a much greater distance on the moon than the previous three flights had accomplished.<P><center><iframe width="400" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1Mqsd0ru_pc" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen>

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 15 mission. On July 26, 1971, David Scott, commander; Jim Irwin, lunar module pilot; and Al Worden, command module pilot launched from Kennedy Space Center's Launch Complex 39A.

Apollo 15 set several new records for crewed spaceflight:

heaviest payload in a lunar orbit of approximately 107,000 pounds
maximum radial distance traveled on the lunar surface away from the spacecraft of about 17.5 miles
most lunar surface moonwalks (three)
longest total of duration for lunar surface moonwalk (18 hours, 37 minutes)
longest time in lunar orbit (about 145 hours)
longest crewed lunar mission (295 hours)
longest Apollo mission
the first satellite placed in lunar orbit by a crewed spacecraft, and
first deep space and operational spacewalk.

Headshot

Aside from Apollo 11, which is in a category all its own, I consider Apollo 12 and Apollo 15 to be defining lunar exploration missions.

Apollo 12, because its pinpoint landing set the stage for targeting all remaining Apollo missions.

Apollo 15 because of its location and crew. For such a geologically varied site (mountains, mare, and a rille!) to be explored by the most competent crew of non-professional geologists was a match of epic proportions. Plus that site was declared worthy of a revisit by Lee Silver himself.

Fifty years! Where does the time go?

Blackarrow

quote:
Originally posted by Headshot:
Fifty years! Where does the time go?

Where indeed? I remember like it was yesterday playing a ball-game in our neighbours' back garden that sunny afternoon in 1971. I kept checking my watch, and at about 2 o'clock local time I went back home and planted myself in front of the colour TV (with a "gigantic" 25 inch screen) to watch the BBC live coverage of the launch.

I still have my original live audio recording, which I listened to this afternoon. Magical times!

Space Cadet Carl

It was also the first flight where Ed "Captain Video" Fendell took remote control of RCA's new field sequential color television camera on the Lunar Rover. The views of Hadley Rille, the mountains of Hadley Delta and Falcon's liftoff were incredible.

Mike Dixon

The rover took the viewing experience to a whole new level.

randy

Not to mention televising the ascent stage liftoff. On edit, sorry, I didn't finish reading the previous post.

Jurg Bolli

To me Apollo 15 had the most spectacular and most beautiful landing spot of all of them.

Rick Mulheirn

I’m with you on that Jurg. The site made all the more spectacular by a massive improvement in the quality of the tv images.

BarryLowe

I was very young at the time, but the hammer and feather experiment remains one of the most vivid memories I have of watching the Apollo moon landings on TV. I was stunned. It was just about the coolest thing that I had ever seen.

Kite

Yes, a superb mission.

ColinBurgess

Sad to contemplate that later this week it will be 30 years since we lost Apollo 15 moonwalker Jim Irwin.

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