EXPLORATION - What has gone before...
Apollo 15 page1
This plaque is located in the outside Saturn-V display of the Davidson Center for Space Exploration at the Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama...it reads:
David Scott, Alfred Worden, James Irwin
SCOTT - WORDEN - IRWIN
Launched: July 26, 1971 - Landed: July 30, 1971 - Splashdown: August 7, 1971
"IT'S REALLY ROLLING HILLS, UP AND DOWN WE GO, BUCKIN'BRONCO!"
Lunar module pilot Jim Irwin described his ride in the first lunar rover.
The Apollo 15 mission is best remembered for introducing the electric Lunar Roving Vehicle, better known as the rover (which was developed at Huntsville's Marshall Space Flight Center). For this mission, the first of the longer, more scientific focused missions, the rover allowed more extensive exploration of the lunar surface. Irwin and Commander Dave Scott spent three days on the Moon, worked on the surface 18 1/2 hours, and journeyed nearly 17 miles on
the rover. Relying on their pre-flight geological training, the astronauts made extensive explorations and drilled into the lunar surface for core samples. The rocks and soil they collected included a "Genisis Rock" - a sample believed to date back to the Moon's origin more than four billion years ago. Meanwhile, orbiting the command module, Al Worden photographed the Moon's surface with mapping cameras attached to the craft's hull. He later retrieved the film during a space walk on the return trip.
