Apollo 15: In the Mountains of the Moon
Video from the channel NASA STI Program about Apollo 15, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 27:51. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.
What it shows
NASA film covering the Apollo 15 mission. It shows the descent of the lunar module Falcon into a valley in the lunar mountains next to Hadley and the surface work with the Lunar Roving Vehicle: collecting rocks, soil and subsurface core samples, setting up a science station and drilling for a heat flow probe. It also shows Al Worden's work in orbit with the command module's instruments, the cancellation of a stamp on an interplanetary cover, the release of a subsatellite, the return with one of the parachutes collapsed and the crew's press conference.
When and where it was filmed
The journey began on July 26, 1971, and the first surface excursion was on July 31. The footage comes from the lunar surface, from the Rover's television camera, operated by a controller from Houston, from lunar orbit and from Earth.
Context
The crew consisted of Dave Scott, commander and veteran of Gemini 8 and Apollo 9; Jim Irwin, lunar module pilot, and Al Worden, command module pilot, who stayed in orbit with cameras and experiments. The narration highlights a rock with large twinned crystals, a fragment of primitive lunar crust formed in the early days of the solar system. After lift-off, the crew spent two more days in lunar orbit and launched the first subsatellite released by a crewed spacecraft. The splashdown system was designed to work with two parachutes. At the end, Scott explains the plaque bearing 14 names of deceased astronauts and cosmonauts and the Fallen Astronaut figurine they left on the Moon, closing with a quote from Plutarch.