Word: falconer
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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APOLLO 15 Astronaut Dave Scott was hardly exaggerating. As he stepped off the ladder of his moon ship Falcon to become the seventh man to walk on the lunar crust, Scott faced the most awesome terrain ever explored: stark mountains, treacherous gorges, strange mounds and craters. "I can look straight up and see our good earth there," he said. A quarter of a million miles away, the world looked up and saw Scott, his peculiar light-footed movements carrying him across color- television scenes of stunning clarity...
With a tug on a cable, the $12.9 million lunar rover folded slowly out of Falcon's side. Its hollow, wire-mesh wheels snapped into place, and the moon car was lowered to the ground. Like most earthly vehicles the rover had a problem: the front-wheel steering did not work. Nonetheless, a 25-yard test drive showed that it was ready to go with its back wheels steering. After a motherly reminder from Mission Control ("Okay, Dave, remember to buckle up for safety"), the astronauts clambered aboard, strapped themselves into place, pushed the control stick forward and moved...
...short time later Scott and Irwin crawled into Falcon, preparing to cast off from the mother ship?and encountered another momentary scare: As they emerged from the back side of the moon, Scott reported: "Houston, we did not get a separation." Falcon and Endeavour were still tightly latched together. Again the wizards in Mission Control solved the problem: telemetry showed that two electrical plugs had not properly connected, and therefore separation could not be accomplished. Worden closed the circuit, and Falcon at last was free...
...Falcon plunged toward the Apennines' 12,000-ft. peaks in a trajectory steeper (25°) than any moon lander before, Scott and Irwin barely displayed a trace of emotion. By the time they were 50 ft. from the surface, the dust kicked up by Falcon's engine was so thick that Scott could not see the landing site. Relying on instruments, Irwin counted: "Ten feet . . . eight feet . . ." Then Scott cut in: "Contact." On Falcon's instrument panel, a blue light flashed. Said Scott: "The Falcon is on the plain at Hadley...
Scott had set down the spacecraft about 400 ft. northeast of the target. An hour and a half later, Scott donned his suit and poked his head out of Falcon's top hatch. "Oh, boy, what a view," he shouted, and he proceeded to name the features he had so carefully studied on earth. Scott's descriptions were so detailed that NASA Geophysicist Robin Brett said he performed as well as a professional geologist...