Alfred Worden
Alfred Merrill Worden was born on the 7th of February 1932 in Jackson, Michigan. He spent his early years living on a family farm outside that city. The family also stayed part of the time at his maternal grandparents' farm near East Jordan. Worden attended Dibble, Griswold, Bloomfield and East Jackson grade schools before graduating from Jackson High School. He became student council president there and earned the rank of First Class Scout as a Boy Scout. His family was not wealthy so he sought a scholarship to enable his studies. He secured one to the University of Michigan but it was good for only one year. Seeing U.S. service academies as his road to an education, Worden took an entrance examination. He received appointments both to the United States Military Academy at West Point and to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. He selected West Point and began his studies there in July 1951. Worden later stated there was no way he was going to live the rest of his life on a farm. That kind of got him started down the path that led to NASA. He came to like the demanding life at West Point once he passed the initial stages of military education. He participated in cross country running gymnastics and cheerleading alongside his studies. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in military science from West Point in 1955 finishing 47th out of 470 in his class.
At the time Worden graduated from West Point he had no piloting experience. The United States Air Force Academy was not yet graduating cadets and would not until 1959. Graduates of West Point and Annapolis were permitted to choose to be commissioned in the Air Force. Some instructors urged this course upon him. He chose the Air Force thinking promotion would be faster though he subsequently learned it was not the case. Worden received primary flight training at Moore Air Force Base in Texas where he learned to fly on Beechcraft T-34 trainer aircraft. He advanced for training at Laredo Air Force Base on Lockheed T-33 jet trainers. After eight months he went on to Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida for Air Defense Command training flying F-86D Sabres. His first post-training assignment was with the 95th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington D.C. He flew F-86Ds and later F-102 Delta Daggers there from March 1957 until May 1961. In addition to serving as a pilot he was his squadron's armament officer. Seeking both to advance his career and benefit the Air Force, Worden asked to study aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan in 1961. He earned Master of Science degrees in aerospace engineering and instrumentation engineering from that university in 1963. After graduation Worden applied for U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School but to his surprise he was not selected. He learned that his superiors wanted him to be part of an exchange program with Britain's Royal Air Force. They trained him at the Empire Test Pilots' School in Farnborough England since that course would not begin for six months. Worden spent the time at the Randolph Air Force Base Instrument Pilots Instructor School. After successfully completing the course at Farnborough second in his class, Worden returned to the U.S. He then served as an instructor at the Aerospace Research Pilot School to which he was ordered at the specific request of its commandant Colonel Chuck Yeager. He graduated from that school in September 1965.
In 1963 Worden put his name in for selection to NASA Astronaut Group 3 but was told that though NASA was interested in him even without test pilot experience, he was ruled out by his pending orders to Farnborough. Worden thought he would be beyond NASA's age limit for new astronauts when next free to consider such a career option. He believed he would never be an astronaut. NASA's recruitment for its fifth group of astronauts took place in 1965 at the same time the Air Force was seeking to recruit for its Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. Qualified pilots in the Air Force were free to apply for either or both programs. Believing as proved correct that the Air Force program would never get off the ground, Worden chose to apply only to NASA in September 1965. Worden wrote in his first book of memoirs that professionally he figured it couldn't get any better than that. Even being a test pilot couldn't compare with being an astronaut and making a spaceflight. Under the selection criteria candidates had to be born on or after the 1st of December 1929 raising the age limit from 34 to 36. Worden aged 34 when selected was one of the 19 candidates chosen by NASA in April 1966 together with his ARPS classmates Stuart Roosa and Charles Duke. Four others were previous graduates. Having been urged by NASA superiors to have plenty of astronauts available for the many hoped-for Apollo and Apollo Applications missions Director of Flight Crew Operations Deke Slayton hired all the Group 5 candidates he considered qualified. Budget cuts and the diversion of funds to other programs meant there would be relatively few flights. Worden perceived some resentment at the new intake from more senior astronauts as the competition for spots on Apollo missions intensified.
After the mission arrived in lunar orbit Scott and Irwin entered Falcon while Worden remained in Endeavour. When the two craft failed to separate to allow Falcon and its crew to prepare for the Moon landing, Worden went into the docking tunnel and reconnected a loose umbilical fixing the problem. Worden in Endeavour was able to listen as Scott and Irwin descended toward and landed on the Moon but was unable to spot Falcon until a later orbit. He had executed a burn of the CSM's main engine the Service Propulsion System to send Endeavour from the lower orbit in which the two craft separated to an orbit of 74 nautical miles by 109 nautical miles in preparation for his scientific work. Worden began what amounted to a separate mission from his crewmates with a separate CAPCOM and mission controllers. His main tasks while alone in lunar orbit were photography and operating the instruments in the SIM bay. Filling previously unused space in the service module the SIM bay contained a gamma-ray spectrometer mounted on the end of a boom an X-ray spectrometer and a laser altimeter which failed part way through the mission. A stellar camera and a metric camera together comprised the mapping camera complemented by a panoramic camera derived from the long-classified Corona spy technology. Also present were an alpha particle spectrometer which could be used to detect evidence of lunar volcanism and a mass spectrometer also on a boom in the hope it would be unaffected by contamination from the ship. He supplemented the photographs with verbal descriptions. Endeavour's inclined orbit caused it to pass over features never seen before in detail as Worden watched. Each time Endeavour's orbit passed from the far side of the Moon to a view of the Earth and renewed communications with Mission Control, Worden greeted it with the words Hello Earth Greetings from Endeavour expressed in different languages. Worden and El-Baz had come up with the idea and had collaborated on translations.
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. This was the second time a first-orbit rendezvous had been accomplished after Apollo 14. Endeavour completed 74 lunar orbits prior to trans-Earth injection 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 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 the record-holder for the spacewalk performed farthest 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.
The crew had before the mission agreed with an acquaintance named Horst Eiermann who was working on behalf of a West German stamp dealer Hermann Sieger to carry 100 postal covers to the Moon in exchange for approximately $7,000 to each astronaut. The astronauts added 100 more for each crew member though two covers were unaccounted for leading to a total of 398. These were carried aboard Endeavour prior to launch by Scott in his spacesuit's pocket transferred into Falcon and spent three days on the lunar surface inside the lander. After the return 100 covers were sent to Eiermann in West Germany and the astronauts received the agreed payments. NASA rules required that personal items carried aboard Apollo flights be manifested for weight and other reasons and approved by Slayton this was not done. The astronauts stated their intent had been to set up trust funds for their children and that they intended that the covers not be sold or otherwise publicized until the Apollo program was over and they had left NASA and the Air Force. Astronauts were forbidden by standards of conduct issued in 1967 from using their position for financial gain for themselves or other people. In addition to the 398 carried by Scott Worden took 144 covers into space at the instigation of F. Herrick Herrick a retired movie director and a stamp collector. These had as required been approved by Slayton who did not ask where Worden had gotten them. After the flight Worden sent 100 of them to Herrick who sold some. These sales prompted an inquiry to NASA alerting Slayton who warned Worden to avoid further commercialization. Worden wrote an angry letter to Herrick stating that the sales were putting his career at risk.
After leaving the Air Force and NASA Worden founded Alfred M. Worden Inc then served as the director of Energy Management Programs at the Northwood Institute in Midland Michigan. In 1982 Worden ran for the United States House of Representatives in Florida's 12th congressional district but lost the Republican primary to state senator Tom Lewis. Despite the loss Worden referred to his run as the high point of his life saying I thought that was a very important thing to do. He put everything into it and lost but that is okay. The Apollo 15 astronauts had been required to turn in and NASA had retained 298 of the postal covers carried aboard by Scott as well as 61 more envelopes from the deal with Herrick. They were transferred to the National Archives in August 1973. It had been Worden's understanding that the covers would be returned once NASA's investigation was over and in 1983 he sued the government. Believing it could not win the government returned the covers and the 298 were divided by the three astronauts. Worden sold some of them to pay debts from his unsuccessful run for Congress. Worden still believed other former astronauts looked at him askance because of the postal covers incident. In 1984 he began to involve himself with the Mercury Seven Foundation set up by the original astronauts to provide scholarships for promising students in the sciences. The organization's name was changed to the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation and in 2005 Worden was elected to chair its board of directors. He served in that capacity until 2011. Worden held executive positions with Jet Electronics and Technology Inc and with B.F. Goodrich prior to his retirement from the business world in 1996. In 2011 Worden's autobiography Falling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut's Journey to the Moon made the top 12 of the Los Angeles Times Bestseller list.
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Common questions
When was Alfred Worden born and where did he grow up?
Alfred Merrill Worden was born on the 7th of February 1932 in Jackson, Michigan. He spent his early years living on a family farm outside that city.
Which university did Alfred Worden attend after high school?
Worden selected West Point and began his studies there in July 1951. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in military science from West Point in 1955 finishing 47th out of 470 in his class.
What year did Alfred Worden join NASA as an astronaut?
NASA chose Alfred Worden as one of the 19 candidates for Group 5 astronauts in April 1966. He had applied to NASA in September 1965 while aged 34 when selected.
How many lunar orbits did the Endeavour spacecraft complete during the Apollo 15 mission?
Endeavour completed 74 lunar orbits prior to trans-Earth injection the burn to take the astronauts home. Worden logged 295 hours and 11 minutes in space during this flight.
Why did Alfred Worden perform a spacewalk during the Apollo 15 mission?
Worden performed the first deep-space EVA to retrieve film cassettes from the panoramic and mapping cameras on the SIM bay. This activity made him the record-holder for the spacewalk performed farthest from Earth.
When was Alfred Worder elected chair of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation board of directors?
In 2005 Worden was elected to chair the board of directors of the organization formerly known as the Mercury Seven Foundation. He served in that capacity until 2011.