Apollo 15 command module pilot Al Worden has died. He’s one of only three people who have done a deep space EVA (spacewalk), which I thought was one of the coolest things they did in the Apollo days.
I met Worden once at the Kennedy Space Center. He was giving a talk, and I was shocked that so few people went to see him. He spent a few minutes talking about airplanes with me afterward.
Anyone else remember some of the lesser known space travelers? I’m always saddened when we lose one of the very few who have been to the moon.
Googling shows that a deep-space EVA was done to retrieve film canisters on the return from the moon. It does not explain, but I assume “deep-space” means outside of earth orbit. Which raises the question: Why were the film canisters outside in the first place?
The film canisters were in a bay of the Service Module behind the command module. Someone realized that they could move stuff around back there and have room for high resolution cameras and even a bay to launch a sub-satellite. Since the Service Module does a swan song into the atmosphere at the end of the mission, Al got to take a 38 minute walk when they were coming back from the moon.
During a presentation Al said the following: “I grew up on a small farm near Jackson. I didn’t want to stay on that farm. I wanted to get as far away from that farm as I could. I just never realized how far away I would get!”