page_title: James Irwin
section_title: Apollo 15
hierarchical_section_title: James Irwin / NASA career / Apollo 15
caption_attribution_description: English: Apollo 15 Lunar Module Pilot James Irwin salutes the U.S. flag.Astronaut James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot, gives a military salute while standing beside the deployed U.S. flag during the Apollo 15 lunar surface extravehicular activity (EVA) at the Hadley-Apennine landing site. The flag was deployed toward the end of EVA-2. The Lunar Module (LM) "Falcon" is in the center. On the right is the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV). This view is looking almost due south. Hadley Delta in the background rises approximately 4,000 meters (about 13,124 feet) above the plain. The base of the mountain is approximately 5 kilometers (about 3 statute miles) away. This photograph was taken by Astronaut David R. Scott, Apollo 15 commander. Original NASA description (From http://nix.larc.nasa.gov) Dansk: Månelandingsmodulet for Apollo 15 med pilot James Irwin gør honnør til det amerikanske flag.Astronaut James B. Irwin, giver en militær hilsen, mens han står ved siden af det plantede amerikanske flag under aktiviteter på Månens overflade ved Hadley-Apennine-landingspladsen. Flaget blev plantet ved afslutningen af den anden aktivitetsrunde. Månemodulet "Falcon" er delvist synligt til den højre side. Hadley Delta rejser sig i baggrunden ca. 4.000 meters over overfladen. Bjergbasen er ca. 5 km væk. Billedet blev taget af astronaut David R. Scott, Apollo 15-kommandør Deutsch: James Irwin, Pilot der Mondlandefähre von Apollo 15, salutiert vor der amerikanischen Flagge. Der Astronaut James B. Irwin, Pilot des Mondlandemoduls, salutiert militärisch neben der aufgestellten US-Fahne stehend, während eines Apollo 15 Außeneinsatzes an der Hadley-Apennin Landestelle. Die Fahne wurde gegen Ende des zweiten Außeneinsatzes aufgestellt. Das Mondlandemodul „Falcon“ steht in der Bildmitte. Das Mondauto (LRV) ist rechts am Bildrand zu sehen. Der Blick richtet sich fast genau nach Süden. Mons Hadley Delta erhebt sich im Hintergrund rund 4000 Meter hoch über die Ebene. Der Fuß des Berges ist ungefähr fünf Kilometer entfernt. Dieses Foto wurde von Astronaut David R. Scott, dem Kommandanten von Apollo 15, aufgenommen. Français&#160;: Le pilote du module Apollo 15 James Irwin salue le drapeau américain. Italiano: Il pilota del modulo Apollo 15, James Irwin, inaugura il suolo lunare con la bandiera degli USA, posizionata sul monte Apenninus, luogo di atterraggio. La foto è stata scattata dall'astronauta David R. Scott, il comandante. Slovenščina: Pilot lunarnega modula Apolla 15 James Irwin salutira ob zastavi ZDA.Astronavt James B. Irwin, pilot lunarnega modula, nam daje vojaški pozdrav, medtem ko stoji ob postavljeni zastavi ZDA med misijo Apollo 15. Fotografija je nastala med raziskovanjem vesoljske lunarne aktivnosti (EVA) na pristajališču Hadley-Apennine. Zastavo je postavil proti koncu podviga EVA-2. V središču je lunarni modul (LM) "Falcon". Na desni je lunarno vozilo (LRV). Pogled je usmerjen proti jugu. V ozadju se dviga Hadley Delta približno 4.000 metrov nad ravnino. Temelji gore se od stojišča nahajajo na razdalji okoli 5 kilometrov. Fotografijo je posnel astronavt David R. Scott, komandir Apolla 15. Po originalnem opisu agencije NASA (Iz http://nix.larc.nasa.gov)
context_page_description: Col. James Benson Irwin, USAF was an American astronaut, aeronautical engineer, test pilot, and a United States Air Force pilot. He served as Apollo Lunar Module pilot for Apollo 15, the fourth human lunar landing. He was the eighth person to walk on the Moon and the first, and youngest, of those astronauts to die.
context_section_description: Between July 26 and August 7, 1971 – as the Apollo 15 Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) – Irwin logged 295 hours and 11 minutes in space. His extravehicular activity (EVA) on the Moon's surface amounted to 18 hours and 35 minutes of the mission time (an additional 33 minutes was used to do a stand-up EVA by opening the LM's docking hatch to survey the surroundings and take photographs). Irwin and David Scott's mission was more science-based than previous missions, which meant that they received intensive geological training to meet the demanding nature of the J-Mission profile.  This extra training is credited with allowing them to make one of the most important discoveries of the Apollo era, the Genesis Rock.
  Apollo 15 landed in the Moon's Hadley-Apennine region, noted for its mountains and rilles. As a J-Mission, they would spend more time on the Moon than previous missions, to allow for three EVAs.  As well, Irwin was the first automobile passenger on the Moon as Scott drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) carried along for this mission in the Lunar Module (LM) Falcon's Descent Stage. Scott and Irwin's stay on the Moon was just under three days at 66 hours and 54 minutes.
  Once the rendezvous procedure was completed between Falcon and the Endeavour CSM, Irwin and Scott were busy moving items like rock samples into the CSM and preparing the Lunar Module for final separation. During this intense period of work the earliest symptoms of a heart condition appeared. Both Scott and Irwin had been working with no sleep for 23 hours, during which they conducted a final moonwalk, performed the ascent from the lunar surface, rendezvoused with Endeavour, and encountered the problems that delayed the Lunar Module jettison maneuver. The astronauts' physiological vital signs were being monitored back on Earth, and the flight surgeons noticed some irregularities in Irwin's heart rhythms. Irwin's heart had developed bigeminy. Dr. Charles Berry stated to Chris Kraft, deputy director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) at the time: "It's serious, [i]f he were on Earth. I'd have him in ICU being treated for a heart attack." However, Berry concluded that since Endeavour's cabin atmosphere was 100% oxygen when in space, Irwin was in the best of circumstances. Specifically, "In truth, ... he's in an ICU.  He's getting one hundred percent oxygen, he's being continuously monitored, and best of all, he's in zero g. Whatever strain his heart is under, well, we can't do better than zero g."
  During the post-trans-Earth injection (TEI) phase of the mission there wasn't much more for Irwin to do other than provide help with Al Worden's EVA to retrieve film magazines from the CSM's SIM bay, by donning a pressure suit and monitoring him. He was able to rest and apparently recover during the rest of the mission. The flight surgeons continued to monitor his EKG until splashdown, but his heart rhythm was normal. This incident was not discussed during the mission debriefing sessions, and the condition did not appear when he returned to Earth.
caption: James Irwin salutes the United States flag on the Moon on August 1, 1971
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