Apollo 15 anniversary: 50 years ago, NASA put a car on the Moon
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Apollo 15 anniversary: 50 years ago, NASA put a car on the MoonBy Rebecca Boyle, New York Times
Last Updated: Jul 28, 2021, 08:42 AM IST
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Synopsis
Apollo 11 and Apollo 13 are the NASA lunar missions that tend to be remembered most vividly. But at the 50th anniversary of Apollo 15, which launched on July 26, 1971, some space enthusiasts, historians and authors are giving the lunar rover its due as one of the most enduring symbols of the American moon exploration program.
New York Times
In a photo provided by NASA, Dave Scott waits in the rover for Jim Irwin to return to with samples collected near the Hadley-Apernine landing site for the ride back to the lunar module on Aug. 1, 1971.
updated: Jul 27 2021, 09:29 ist
David R. Scott was not about to pass by an interesting rock without stopping. It was July 31, 1971, and he and James B. Irwin, his fellow Apollo 15 astronaut, were the first people to drive on the moon. After a six-hour inaugural jaunt in the new lunar rover, the two were heading back to their lander, the Falcon, when Scott made an unscheduled pit stop.
West of a crater called Rhysling, Scott scrambled out of the rover and quickly picked up a black lava rock, full of holes formed by escaping gas. Scott and Irwin had been trained in geology and knew the specimen, a vesicular rock, would be valuable to scientists on Earth. They also knew that if they asked for permission to stop and get it, clock-watching mission managers would say no. So Scott made up a story that they stopped the rover because he was fidgeting with his seat belt. The sample was discovered when the astronauts returned to Earth, and “Seat Belt Rock” became one of the most prized ge