Remembering Al Worden: Apollo 15 Command Module Pilot and First Deep-Space Spacewalker

NASA's film remembers Al Worden (1932–2020), the command module pilot of Apollo 15, in his own words.

Training

Worden recalls the preparation as hard work but never boring: the crew studied geology, and spent the first six months on the spacecraft's systems — the electronics, navigation, radios and the rest.

Apollo 15

Apollo 15 was the fourth crewed lunar landing mission, and it was different from every flight before it: it carried the first lunar rover, and a fairly complex scientific package into lunar orbit.

On August 5, 1971, Worden became the first human to make a spacewalk in deep space. He fixed his feet in foot restraints, stood up outside the spacecraft and looked around — and from there he could see the Earth and the Moon at the same time. He called it "Uncanny. Unbelievable place to be."

What Apollo meant

For Worden, the lasting impact of the Apollo program — on his own country and on the world — was to show people that they can do whatever they set their minds to: nothing is impossible.

After the flight

Worden became a Senior Aerospace Scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center, and from 1973 to 1975 he was chief of its Systems Study Division.

Sources

Based on "Remembering Apollo 15 Astronaut Al Worden," NASA Image and Video Library; NASA material, not copyrighted and in the public domain; rewritten in hubnx's own words. The film's caption says Worden "because" senior aerospace scientist; "became" is meant.