Rocket Men: Apollo 15 & The University of Michigan Crew

"Climb aboard the Lunar Rover..."
Mission Objective
Apollo 15 was the first of the Apollo "J" missions capable of a longer stay time on the moon and greater surface mobility. There were four primary objectives falling in the general categories of lunar surface science, lunar orbital science and engineering-operational. The mission objectives were to explore the Hadley-Apennine region, set up and activate lunar surface scientific experiments, make engineering evaluations of new Apollo equipment, and conduct lunar orbital experiments and photographic tasks.
Apollo 15 set several new records for crewed spaceflight: heaviest payload in a lunar orbit of approximately 107,000 pounds, maximum radial distance traveled on the lunar surface away from the spacecraft of about 17.5 miles (previous high was 2.1 miles on Apollo 14), most lunar surface EVAs (three) and longest total of duration for lunar surface EVAs (18 hours, 37 minutes - almost the total time spent in lunar orbit by Apollo 8), longest time in lunar orbit (about 145 hours; only two hours less than the entire Apollo 8 mission), longest crewed lunar mission (295 hours), longest Apollo mission (295 hours - previous high was 244 hours, 36 minutes on Apollo 12), the first satellite placed in lunar orbit by a crewed spacecraft, and first deep space and operational EVA.
Crew
David R. Scott, Commander
James B. Irwin, Lunar Module Pilot
Alfred M. Worden, Command Module Pilot
Backup Crew
Richard F. Gordon Jr., Commander
Harrison H. Schmitt, Lunar Module Pilot
Vance DeVoe Brand, Command Module Pilot
Payload
Endeavor (CM-112)
Falcon (LM-10)
Prelaunch Milestones
5/18/70 - S-II ondock at Kennedy
6/13/70 - S-IVB ondock at Kennedy
6/26/70 - S-IU ondock at Kennedy
7/6/70 - S-IC ondock at Kennedy
Launch
July 26, 1971; 9:34:00 a.m. EDT
Launch Pad 39A
Saturn-V AS-510
High Bay 3
Mobile Launcher Platform-3
Firing Room 1
Orbit
Altitude: 99.7 miles
Inclination: 29.679 degrees
Orbits: 74 revolutions
Duration: 12 days, 17 hours, 12 min
Distance: 1,274,137 miles
Lunar Location: Hadley-Apennine
Lunar Coordinates: 26.08 degrees north, 3.66 degrees east
Landing
Aug. 7, 1971, Pacific Ocean
Recovery Ship: USS Okinawa
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