page_title: Alfred Worden
section_title: Return
hierarchical_section_title: Alfred Worden / NASA career / Apollo 15 / Return
caption_attribution_description: English: Astronaut Alfred Worden floats in space outside spacecraft during EVA Description: Astronaut Alfred M. Worden, command module pilot of the Apollo 15 mission, floats in space outside of the spacecraft during his transearth extravehicular activity (EVA). This picture was taken from a frame of motion picture film exposed by the 16mm Maurer camera mounted on the hatch of the Command Module. During his EVA Worden made on inspection of the Service Module's Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) bay and retrieved the film cassettes from the Panoramic Camera and Mapping Camera. The EVA occurred when the spacecraft was homeward bound approximately 171,000 nautical miles from Earth. ID: S71-43202 Polski: Astronauta Alfred Worden unosi się w przestrzeni kosmicznej na zewnątrz statku kosmicznego Apollo 15. Obraz ten jest jedną z klatek filmu nakręconego 16 mm kamerą zamontowaną we włazie wejściowym modułu dowodzenia. Podczas tego EVA Worden zabiera z pojemnika modułu serwisowego taśmy filmowe nakręcone kamerą panoramiczną i geodezyjną i przenosi je modułu dowodzenia. Akcja odbywa się około 340 000 kilometrów od ziemi w drodze powrotnej z Księżyca na Ziemię.
context_page_description: Col. Alfred Merrill Worden USAF was an American test pilot, engineer and NASA astronaut who was the command module pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971. One of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon, he orbited it 74 times in the command module Endeavour.
  Worden was born in Michigan in 1932, and spent his early years living on farms. He attended the University of Michigan for one year, before securing an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Graduating in 1955, he elected to be commissioned in the Air Force, though he had no piloting experience. He proved adept at flying fighter planes, and honed his skills, becoming a test pilot prior to his selection as a Group 5 astronaut in 1966. He served on the support crew for Apollo 9 and the backup crew for Apollo 12 before his selection for the Apollo 15 crew in 1970, with David Scott as commander and James Irwin as lunar module pilot.
  After Apollo 15 reached lunar orbit, and his crewmates departed to land on the Moon, Worden spent three days alone in the CM, becoming in the process the individual who traveled the furthest from any other human being, a distinction he still holds.
context_section_description: As Falcon took off from the Moon, Worden played a recording of the Air Force Song ("Off we go, into the wild blue yonder"), intending it to be heard only in Mission Control; somewhat to his chagrin it was relayed to the LM, to the annoyance of Scott. Worden piloted the CSM as Scott maneuvered the LM, bringing them together in a direct rendezvous, on the first lunar orbit, the second time a first-orbit rendezvous had been accomplished (after Apollo 14).
  Endeavour completed 74 lunar orbits prior to trans-Earth injection (TEI), the burn to take the astronauts home. On the way back to Earth, Worden did a spacewalk to retrieve film from the spacecraft's cameras. He took 38 minutes in extravehicular activity (EVA) outside Endeavour to accomplish this, three times venturing from outside the hatch to the exterior of the SIM bay of the SM. In retrieving the film cassettes from the panoramic and mapping cameras, Worden performed the first deep-space EVA, and reported his personal observations of the general condition of equipment housed there. Worden remains, as of 2020, the record-holder for the EVA performed furthest from Earth.  Apollo 15 concluded with a Pacific splashdown and subsequent recovery by the  amphibious assault ship USS Okinawa. In completing his flight, Worden logged 295 hours and 11 minutes in space.
caption: Worden performing the first deep-space EVA during Apollo 15's homeward journey (1971)
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