Apollo 15

Launched: July 26, 1971
Landed: July 30, 1971, Hadley Rille
Splashed Down: August 7, 1971

Crew:

• David R. Scott
• James B. Irwin
• Alfred M. Worden

This was the first of the longer expeditions to the moon, where we actually began to explore the terrain in some detail. The flight of Apollo 15 featured the first use of the Lunar Rover, which permitted Scott and Irwin to leave the Lunar Module "Falcon" behind and drive around over more than 27 kilometers of lunar ground.

The astronauts found and brought back the "Genesis Rock,", a chunk of truly ancient lunar crust that has been extensively studied for clues about the origins of the moon and the Earth.

During the return flight aboard the Command Module "Endeavour," Alfred Worden became the first man to perform a space walk outside of earth's orbit as he went outside to retrieve some film from the side of the space craft.