San Diego Air & Space Museum Hosts Apollo 15 50th Anniversary
The San Diego Air & Space Museum is proud to be the one-and-only host of the official Apollo 15 50th Anniversary, the most complex and carefully planned scientific expedition in the history of exploration.” Clearly one of the Apollo program’s finest moments, the Apollo 15 50th Anniversary Celebration takes place at the San Diego Air & Space Museum on Saturday, July 31, the Museum recently announced.
Apollo 15 Commander Colonel David R. Scott (USAF Ret.) and Flight Director Gerry Griffin highlight an All-Star panel discussion focusing on one the most carefully planned scientific explorations in human history. A limited number of tickets to the event are on sale at https://sandiegoairandspace.org/apollo15.
“The San Diego Air & Space Museum is honored to host the only 50th Anniversary celebration of one of the most significant scientific achievements in human history,” said Jim Kidrick, President & CEO of the San Diego Air & Space Museum. “This is an incredible opportunity to see and hear from the men who took part in the most extensive in-person exploration of the lunar surface, a goal of humankind from time immemorial.”
Apollo 15 launched at 0936 on July 26, 1971, their objective, to explore the Hadley Apennine region of the moon, the most scientifically significant site of the entire Apollo program. After a three-day transit and one day in lunar orbit, Commander Dave Scott and Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin landed their Lunar Module “Falcon” near Hadley Rille at the base of the Apennine mountains to live and work on the moon for three days, as Command Module Pilot Al Worden orbited the moon in the Command Module “Endeavor,” operating a large suite of sophisticated scientific instruments. Scott and Irwin drove the first Lunar Roving Vehicle to explore three areas of unique geological features on the slopes of Hadley Delta mountain (9,000 feet) and the edge of Hadley Rille (1,000 feet deep, 1.5 miles across).
During their three EVAs and 18 hours outside the Lunar Module, they observed for the first time stratigraphic layering in the sides of Hadley Rille, and they maneuvered the Lunar Rover 3.1 miles from the Lunar Module including up the steep soft slopes (19 degrees) of Hadley Delta mountain. They collected 179 pounds of lunar rocks and soil, among the most significant of which were an anorthosite (15415), the first sample of the primordial crust of the Moon (age 4.5 billion years) often termed the “genesis rock,” and a surprising “friable green clod” (15425), containing the first water discovered on the moon. Scott and Irwin would later precisely rendezvous with Al Worden for two more days of science in lunar orbit. They returned to earth in three days, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean.
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