JULY 26--The Apollo 15 spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center for a lunar mission. On 30 July the lunar module Falcon commanded by David R. Scott, USAF with James B. Irwin, USAF, a Naval Academy graduate, class of 1951, separated from the command ship, Endeavor, with Alfred M. Worden, USAF, and landed on the moon in the Hadley-Apennine area.

The crew accumulated 66 hours, 55 minutes on the moon's surface before they departed on 2 August. Five days later, on 7 August Okinawa, primary recovery ship for Task Force 130, accomplished the recovery of the Apollo 15 crew, after splashdown in the Pacific. The mission was the first of three moon flights geared directly to scientific investigation and achieved far more than all the previous lunar missions combined.