Apollo 15 was the fourth Apollo mission where men landed on the moon. It was a mission set to explore the Hadley-Apennine Region of the moon.

LRV

The LRV or Lunar Roving Vehicle was deployed for the first time with the Apollo 15 crew. The LRV allowed the astronauts to explore much further than the Lunar Module had allowed before. It meant that the astronauts could explore tens of kilometres instead of the hundred or so metres that the Lunar Module allowed.

A successful landing

Apollo 15 was successful and was the first in a series of three advanced missions that were planned for the Apollo program. The shuttle launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 9:34am EST on 26th July 1971.

The Lunar Module landed on the moon at 22:04pm GMT on 30th July 1971 and the astronauts spent 66 hours, 54 minutes and 53 seconds on the surface of the moon. The astronauts returned to Earth with 76kg of lunar material samples that they collected from the Hadley-Apennine Region which included soil, rock, core-tune and deep core samples.

The Crew

 

 

The Apollo 15 was manned by David R. Scott, Commander; Alfred J. Worden, Command Module Pilot and James B.Irwin, Lunar Module Pilot.

Returning to Earth

There was one slight hiccup to the Apollo 15 mission when one of the re-entry capsule parachutes collapsed before splashdown. Despite this, the capsule landed safely on 7th August 1971 at 20:45pm GMT

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