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“Astronauts: David R. Scott, Alfred M. Worden, and James B. Irwin
Launch date: July 26, 1971
Featured are the standup EVA, the three traverses of the lunar surface, film taken from the Lunar Rover, hammer and feather test of Galileo’s theory on falling objects in gravity fields, Worden’s EVA, sub-satellite launching, X-ray pulsar observations, and splash down with one parachute collapsed.
AWARDS: Golden Eagle, Council on International Nontheatrical Events (CINE), 1972 * Chris Award, 20th Annual Columbus Film Festival, 1972”
NASA film JSC-572
Public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied.
The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original).
PROJECT APOLLO PLAYLIST:
Apollo 15 was the ninth manned mission in the United States’ Apollo space program, the fourth to land on the Moon, and the eighth successful manned mission. It was the first of what were termed “J missions”, long stays on the Moon, with a greater focus on science than had been possible on previous missions. It was also the first mission on which the Lunar Roving Vehicle was used.
The mission began on July 26, 1971, and ended on August 7. At the time, NASA called it the most successful manned flight ever achieved.
Commander David Scott and Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin spent three days on the Moon, including 18½ hours outside the spacecraft on lunar extra-vehicular activity. The mission was the first not to land in a lunar mare, instead landing near Hadley rille, in an area of the Mare Imbrium called Palus Putredinus (Marsh of Decay). The crew explored the area using the first Lunar Rover, which allowed them to travel much farther from the Lunar Module lander than had been possible on missions without the Rover. They collected 77 kg (170 lbs) of lunar surface material. At the same time, Command Module Pilot Alfred Worden orbited the Moon, using a Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) in the Service Module to study the lunar surface and environment in great detail with a panoramic camera, a gamma-ray spectrometer, a mapping camera, a laser altimeter, a mass spectrometer, and a lunar sub-satellite deployed at the end of Apollo 15’s stay in lunar orbit (an Apollo program first).
Although the mission accomplished its objectives, this success was somewhat overshadowed by negative publicity that accompanied public awareness of postage stamps carried without authorization by the astronauts, who had made plans to sell them upon their return…
Apollo 15 launched on July 26, 1971, at 934 AM EDT from the Kennedy Space Center, at Cape Canaveral, Florida…
They touched down at 22:16:29 UTC on July 30 at Hadley, within a few hundred meters of the planned landing site. While previous crews had exited the Lunar Module shortly after landing, the crew of Apollo 15 elected to spend the rest of the day inside the LM, waiting until the next day to perform the first of three Extra-vehicular activities (EVAs), or moonwalks, in order to preserve their sleep rhythm on a mission on which they were to spend a significantly longer time on the surface than previous crews had spent. Before they slept, Scott performed a stand-up EVA, during which the LM was depressurized and he photographed their surroundings from the top docking hatch…
Scott and Irwin became the seventh and eighth humans, respectively, to walk on the Moon. After unloading the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV), the two drove to the first moonwalk’s primary destination, Elbow Crater, along the edge of Hadley Rille. On returning to the LM Falcon, Scott and Irwin deployed the Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package (ALSEP). The first EVA lasted about 6½ hours…
The target of the second EVA, the next day, was the edge of Mount Hadley Delta, where the pair sampled boulders and craters along the Apennine Front. During this moonwalk, the astronauts recovered what came to be one of the more famous lunar samples collected on the Moon during Apollo, sample #15415, more commonly known as the “Genesis Rock”… EVA 2 lasted 7 hours and 12…
During EVA 3, the third and final moonwalk of the mission, the crew again ventured to the edge of Hadley Rille, this time to the northwest of the immediate landing site. After returning to the LM’s location, Scott performed an experiment in view of the TV camera, using a feather and hammer to demonstrate Galileo’s theory that all objects in a given gravity field fall at the same rate… The EVA lasted 4 hours and 50 minutes…
In total, the two astronauts spent 18½ hours outside of the LM and collected approximately 77 kg (170 lbs) of lunar samples…
