#lunar rover
Leaving for work. Apollo 15 was the 4th mission to land on the moon. Astronauts David Scott & James Irwin became the first to drive on the moon courtesy the Lunar Rover. The pair landed by Hadley Rille which was originally planned to be the landing spot for Apollo 19 before budget cuts nixed the mission. The Aug 1971 mission was Scott’s 3rd and final spaceflight while it was Irwin’s & Command Module Pilot Al Worden’s first and only. What a historic mission.
Parking is ample. The first to drive on the moon, David Scott, walks away from the Lunar Rover during Apollo 15, Aug 1971. Scott & fellow astronaut Jim Irwin spent 18.5 hours on EVAs during their lunar stay while Command Module Pilot Al Worden orbited above.
The open road. I can’t tell who but one of the Apollo 17 astronauts (Gene Cernan or Harrison Schmitt) sits in the Lunar Rover during their near 23 hours of EVA time on Apollo Program’s last moon landing, Dec 1972. The Command Module for the mission which Ronald Evans piloted was named ‘America’ while the Lunar Module was named ‘Challenger’. Cernan & Schmitt landed in the Taurus-Littrow Valley. I wonder when humanity’s next crewed landing will be?
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday to Apollo 15 astronaut Jim Irwin, seen here driving with crewmate Dave Scott in the Lunar Roving Vehicle at Cinder Lake, south of Flagstaff, Arizona.
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Yutu-2 rover, part of the Chang'e 4 Chinese Lunar Exploration Program, named after the Chinese Moon goddess Launched on 7 December 2018, the Chang'e 4 lander is the first mission to achieve a soft-landing on the far side of the moon. It’s mission, to explore the Aitken Basin where a meteorite has exposed the deep lunar crust, may provide information about the Moon’s origins. In December 2019, Yutu 2 broke the lunar longevity record of eleven lunar days (321 Earth days), previously held by the Lunokhod 1 rover. Yutu-2 is still actively exploring the Moon as of June 2021.
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