NASA’s Apollo 15 Mission: A Kid’s View from 1971

This is truly a golden age for space enthusiasts. Not only is there an ever-expanding number of interesting government-sponsored and commercial space projects underway, but the internet provides incredible access to news about the latest developments. Events ranging from landings on Mars to the day-to-day activities on the International Space Station are regularly streamed live as they happen for the world to watch with high quality digital images, videos and in-depth articles available online within hours.

For old time space enthusiasts like myself, such access to information about space was just a dream a half century ago as NASA flew the Apollo missions to the Moon. Back then, information was typically available via print media from daily newspapers, weekly news magazines and monthly periodicals. Coverage was also provided by radio and TV but, with a limited number of broadcast stations (during the early ‘70s, there were only a half dozen TV stations in the Boston market where I grew up), only the most significant space-related events got covered in any way and fewer still were broadcast live. And even when there were space-related TV broadcasts, they were in the now-obsolete, 480-line NTSC analog video standard with no where near the quality of today’s digital HDTV.

A perfect example of the differences between now and back then was my experience with the Apollo 15 mission in the summer of 1971 when I was nine years old. While I had managed to follow most of the major events of the historic Apollo 11 mission in July 1969 (including staying up well past my normal bedtime to watch the first moonwalk), I missed most of the events of the subsequent three Apollo missions. In addition to being a bit too young to be reading the daily newspaper, I was usually either in school or in bed when moonwalks and other important events were taking place. The Apollo 15 mission was different. By this point, I was regularly clipping pictures about space out of the newspaper (I would start regularly saving whole articles by 1972). And, as luck would have it, the Apollo 15 mission was being flown during my summer vacation from school with all of the important events (especially the moonwalks!) taking place at reasonable hours during the day. What follows are my recollections of the Apollo 15 lunar mission along with some of the pictures I saved as well as videos providing a taste of what we got to see live back then.

 

The Apollo 15 Mission

As the summer of 1971 began, my enthusiasm for the upcoming Apollo 15 mission only increased with the arrival of the July 1971 issue of National Geographic. The cover story for this issue was a fully illustrated article about the Apollo 14 mission with Alan Shepard (a hero of mine back then) which I had followed as best as I could the previous February. This was the first Apollo mission where I made an effort to clip articles and (mainly) photographs from the local daily newspaper, The Lowell Sun. This incredible article in National Geographic also included a short piece giving a preview of the Apollo 15 mission to come.

The crew for the Apollo 15 mission consisted of USAF Colonel David R. Scott as the Commander, USAF Major Alfred M. Worden as the Command Module Pilot (CMP) and USAF Lt. Colonel James B. Irwin as the Lunar Module Pilot (LMP). The 39 year old Dave Scott was a West Point graduate and received a masters in aeronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in addition to graduating from the USAF Test Pilot School and Aerospace Research Pilot School. Scott joined NASA with the third group of astronauts selected in October 1963. He had flown previously as the pilot on the Gemini 8 mission in March of 1966 (see “Gemini 8: The First Docking in Space”) and as the CMP for the Apollo 9 mission three years later (see “Apollo 9: Giving the “Spider” Wings”) logging a total of almost 11 days in space.

Al Worden, also 39 years old and a graduate of West Point like Scott, received masters degrees in Astronautical/Aeronautical Engineering as well as Instrumentation Engineering from the University of Michigan and served as an instructor at the Aerospace Research Pilots School before being chosen as an astronaut in April of 1966 as part of NASA’s sixth astronaut group. Jim Irwin, 41 years of age, attended the US Naval Academy and earned masters degrees in Aeronautical Engineering as well as Instrumentation Engineering from the University of Michigan like Worden. Irwin, who received flight training after being commissioned as an officer in the USAF, was a developmental test pilot for the Lockheed YF-12 Mach 3 fighter-interceptor – the precursor of the famous SR-71 reconnaissance aircraft. He was chief of the Advanced Requirements Branch at Headquarters Air Defense Command before being selected as part of NASA’s sixth group of astronauts. The Apollo 15 mission would be the first flight in space for Worden and Irwin.

Apollo 15 was the first of the J-series missions to the Moon. In addition to the Service Module (SM) carrying a suite of instruments to study the lunar surface and surrounding environment from orbit, the Lunar Module (LM) carried extra supplies to increase the stay time on the lunar surface from a maximum of 37 hours (as on the earlier missions) to 67 hours along with an expanded array of equipment to explore the lunar surface. The most notable addition to the J-series missions was an electric powered vehicle known as the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) which the astronauts would drive to explore the lunar surface. The 210-kilogram (empty mass) LRV, which was stowed on the LM descent stage, was capable of operating for 75 hours on the lunar surface with a maximum cumulative distance capability of about 65 kilometers. Because of the limitations of the astronaut’s Portable Life Support System (PLSS), the range for surface exploration was limited to a radius of no more than about 9½ kilometers in case a breakdown forced the astronauts to walk back to the LM. Of particular interest to me and other space enthusiasts at the time, the LRV included a remote controlled color TV camera and an umbrella-like high gain antenna that could be pointed back to Earth during the stops along the lunar traverse to provide live television coverage of the astronauts’ activities.

The landing site for the Apollo 15 mission was next to the canyon-like Hadley Rille located near the Moon’s Apennine Mountains on the southeastern boundary of Mare Imbrium – one of the Moon’s major ancient impact features. The rille itself is a collapsed lava tube averaging about 1½ kilometers in width and up to about 400 meters deep near the landing site. It was formed during the time basaltic lava flooded the Imbrium basin billions of years ago. Because of the uprated capabilities of the Apollo 15 LM, given the callsign Falcon, and the improved EVA suits the astronauts were wearing, Scott and Irwin would make three EVAs lasting up to 7 hours during their three-day stay on the Moon. While his crewmates explored the lunar surface, Worden onboard the Command-Service Module (CSM), with the callsign Endeavour, would use the cameras and other instruments in the Science Instrument Module (SIM) housed in the SM to survey the Moon from orbit.

 

Monday, July 26 – Launch Day

The Sunday morning edition of our local newspaper that arrived before launch day had an article about the upcoming Apollo 15 mission (the artwork from which is shown above in this post’s feature image) along with a schedule of the major mission events including those that would be televised over the coming week. Well prepared for what was to come, I started watching TV news coverage of what would be the fourth Apollo launch I would watch on TV (after Apollo 11, 13 and 14) right after finishing breakfast. I intently followed the countdown until liftoff at 9:34 AM EDT (see the videos of the launch coverage below)

 

With Apollo 15 safely in its parking orbit, I turned to other summertime activities of interest to a nine-year-old. But after my lunch (with Apollo 15 now on its way to the Moon), I was treated to live TV coverage of the “transposition and docking” where the CSM pulled away from the spent S-IVB third stage of the Saturn V, turned and then docked with the LM. Docking was successfully completed at 1:08 PM EDT and the LM was subsequently pulled from the S-IVB stage for the trip to the Moon (see the video below – naturally we only had the live audio and TV feed to watch at the time).

 

When the afternoon edition of the local newspaper arrived later in the day, I was treated to a picture of the launch I had witnessed earlier in the day. Naturally, I clipped it out and saved it.

 

The Trip to the Moon

The three-day trip to the Moon was uneventful for the crew of Apollo 15 as my attention was focused on taking advantage of outdoor activities including some “simulated” moonwalks with my friends equipped with our Star Team space helmets and other gear. Not much of interest happened save for seeing a brief clip of a TV tour of Endeavour and Falcon on the network national news on the evening of Wednesday, July 28. Apollo 15 successfully entered lunar orbit at 4:05 PM EDT on Thursday, July 29 and preparations began for the landing on the Moon scheduled for Friday afternoon.

 

Friday, July 30 – Landing on the Moon

Four days after watching the launch of Apollo 15, I watched live TV coverage of the lunar landing. With the CSM and LM undocking at 2:13 PM EDT, the landing took place just before dinner time at 6:16 PM. Falcon had come down at 26.13° N, 3.63° E only 550 meters northwest of the planned target point (see the video below – at the time, we would have only heard the audio of the landing with the 16 mm film footage becoming available only after the end of the mission).

 

Two hours after landing, Dave Scott performed a 23-minute “stand up EVA” through the LM’s docking hatch to execute a quick survey of the surrounding area. It would be months before I would get to see the photographs from this survey along with most of the other photographs taken during this mission.

 

Saturday, July 31 – The First Moonwalk

Instead of watching my usual Saturday morning cartoons after breakfast, I watched live TV coverage of the first moonwalk of the Apollo 15 mission (much to the consternation of my younger siblings). The LM was depressurized at 9:13 AM EDT with live TV from the Moon coming in about 14 minutes later with much higher quality than what we were treated to during the Apollo 11 moonwalk just two years earlier. After gathering a contingency sample and repositioning the TV camera to provide a view of Falcon, Scott and Irwin began to deploy the LRV and prepare it for its first traverse which started at 11:19 AM (see the video below for the TV coverage of this EVA).

 

The views of Hadley Rille and the nearby Apennine Mountains being returned live from the LRV’s TV camera during the stops of this first traverse were absolutely breathtaking especially compared to the relatively flat landscapes of the earlier Apollo landing sites. After my lunchtime, the astronauts started back to the LM to complete their tasks for this EVA.

By about 1:40 PM EDT, Scott and Irwin started deploying the ALSEP (Apollo Lunar Science Experiment Package). While the objectives of most of the instruments was beyond me at the time, I did grasp the purpose of the S-031 Lunar Passive Seismometer to measure moonquakes as well as the S-078 Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector to measure the distance to the Moon and the S-080 Solar Wind Composition experiment which used a sheet of aluminum foil to capture solar wind particles – all experiments which were flown on the Apollo 11 mission. The live TV transmissions of the mission’s first surface EVA ended at 3:29 PM with Scott and Irwin returning inside the LM and repressurizing its cabin about 17 minutes later for some well-deserved rest.

 

Sunday, August 1 – The Second Moonwalk

Sunday morning started with breakfast and the arrival of the Sunday morning paper which included a color picture of Scott and Irwin in the LRV (it would be decades before I learned that this was actually a photograph from a training session back in June). The second Apollo 15 moonwalk started with the depressurization of the LM at 7:48 AM EDT. After the astronauts started preparations for the second traverse using the LRV, live TV transmissions from the Moon started at 8:09 AM. Much of this traverse was along the foot of the Apennine Mountains (see the videos below).

 

After returning to the LM at about 12:42 PM EDT, Scott and Irwin offloaded their samples from the LRV and proceeded to the ALSEP site to gather samples and drill holes into the surface for the sensors of the S-037 Lunar Heat Flow experiment. By 2:06 PM, the astronauts arrived at Falcon again to plant an American flag and closeout their EVA. The live TV feed from the Moon ended at 2:54 PM with the crew back inside the LM and repressurizing its cabin a few minutes later.

 

Monday, August 2 – The Third Moonwalk

While I tended to rise fairly early when I was nine years old (especially compared to my teenage years and into adulthood), I missed the first part of the third (and last) moonwalk whose live TV transmissions started at about 5:19 AM EDT. By the time I started watching the live coverage of the EVA after breakfast, Scott and Irwin were already on their traverse to the north of Falcon near Hadley Rille (see the video below).

 

Two things stuck out in my memory of this day. My younger brother insisted that we had seen enough “space stuff” and kept changing the channel to watch The Three Stooges. My mother interceded on my behalf telling my brother, “you can watch the Stooges any time, this is a historic event.” The other event that I clearly recall was the demonstration by Dave Scott of Galileo’s equivalence principle where objects of different masses fall at the same rate in a gravitational field. For the demonstration, Scott dropped a hammer and a falcon feather from the mascot of the USAF Academy. Without atmospheric drag to affect the feather, both objects hit the ground at the same time. While the nine-year-old me thought it was pretty “groovy”, it would be a few more years before I started learning more about physics and truly appreciated the significance of the demonstration. After parking the LRV some distance behind the LM, Scott and Irwin wrapped up their last EVA at 9:42 AM EDT with live TV from the Moon ending 12 minutes later.

 

Coming Home

The completion of the last EVA on Monday morning was not the end of the excitement for that day. With the LRV providing a live TV feed independent of the LM, we would get to see a launch of the LM from the lunar surface for the first time. After lunch, I was glued to the TV set and followed the countdown for the launch with dramatic visions of a lunar liftoff like those pictured in the artwork above. With liftoff at 1:11 PM EDT, I was surprised by the lack of a dramatic flame coming from the ascent stage’s engine – only later did I learn that was because the Aerozine 50 and nitrogen tetroxide propellants of the engine produced an exhaust plume too faint to see similar to the situation with Gemini-Titan II launches. Still, the nine-year-old me was pleased to see the spray of debris coming from the descent stage as the ascent stage quickly rose out of view (see the video below).

 

A couple of hours after its dramatic liftoff, Falcon’s ascent stage rendezvoused and docked with Endeavour in lunar orbit. After Scott and Irwin rejoined Worden in the CSM and finished transferring their lunar samples as well as other equipment over the next six hours, the ascent stage was cut loose and directed to impact the lunar surface. The next couple of days were spent observing the Moon from orbit and deploying the Particle and Fields Subsatellite (PFS) to continue studying the Moon after the departure of Apollo 15 (see “Vintage Micro: The Apollo Particle and Fields Subsatellites”).

Finally at 5:23 PM EDT on Wednesday, August 4, Endeavour ignited its main engine to start the three-day voyage back to Earth. The following day we got a treat we did not have on the earlier Apollo lunar missions: a trans-Earth EVA where CMP Al Worden performed a spacewalk with the assistance of the LMP Jim Irwin in the CM hatch to retrieve photographic film from the cameras in the SIM (see “A History of Deep Space EVAs”). The 39-minute EVA, which started 11:31 AM just before my lunchtime, was televised live for us to witness (see the video below for the EVA coverage).

 

The following couple of days were uneventful from the point of view of a nine year old. On August 6 (the day before splashdown), the astronauts held a press conference from Endeavour to answer questions about their mission an excerpt of which was aired during the national network news that evening (see the video below for the full press conference).

 

 

Saturday, August 7 – Splashdown

The excitement of the Apollo 15 mission was almost at an end as that Saturday unfolded. All that was left was reentry and splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. Naturally, I was glued to the TV set to watch the live coverage (see the video below for the splashdown coverage).

 

After successfully completing reentry, we all waited to catch a glimpse of the Apollo 15 CM coming down on its trio of parachutes. When we finally caught sight of it, only two of its parachutes had deployed properly. As was quickly explained by the on-air experts, a safe landing was still possible even under these conditions. The CM finally splashed down at 4:46 PM EDT. Although it had briefly submerged itself from the faster than normal landing, it quickly bobbed back to the surface nose up with the crew recovered less than a half an hour later. The Apollo 15 mission was now over and I would get to see some pictures of the recovery the next day in the Sunday morning paper.

 

Afterwards

Within a week or so of the end of the Apollo 15 mission, I would get to see a handful of the photographs taken by Scott, Worden and Irwin published in the local newspaper (like those shared in the article previously). These half-tone reproductions were of relatively poor quality but they gave a better sense of what the astronauts saw during their 12-day mission to the Moon and back. It would not be until National Geographic published an article about the mission in their February 1972 issue six months later that I would get to see high-quality reproductions of these and many other photos taken during the mission. By this time, I was a much more mature ten-year-old in fourth grade and already gearing up for the Apollo 16 mission to be launched in April of 1972.

 

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Related Video

Here is a 1971 NASA documentary, “In the Mountains of the Moon”, about the Apollo 15 mission. This was the type of film I would have watched in school well after the mission. In all likelihood, I did not see this until a decade and a half after the Apollo 15 mission when I started collecting NASA documentaries on VHS videotape.

 

 

Related Reading

“Vintage Micro: The Apollo Particle and Fields Subsatellites”, Drew Ex Machina, November 23, 2014 [Post]

“A History of Deep Space EVAs”, Drew Ex Machina, December 17, 2017 [Post]

“Growing Up in the Space Age: Summer Vacations of the ‘70s”, Drew Ex Machina, July 22, 2019 [Post]

“Plans for a Command Module of My Own”, Drew Ex Machina, May 31, 2014 [Post]

 

General References

Richard W. Orloff and David M. Harland, Apollo: The Definitive Sourcebook, Springer-Praxis, 2006