Al Worden

Alfred Merrill Worden (February 7, 1932 – March 18, 2020) was an American test pilot, engineer and NASA astronaut who was command module pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971. One of the 24 Apollo astronauts to reach the Moon, he orbited it 74 times in the command module (CM) Endeavour. Worden was born in Michigan in 1932; he spent his early years living on farms and attended the Universit...

Alfred Merrill Worden (February 7, 1932 – March 18, 2020) was an American test pilot, engineer and NASA astronaut who was command module pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971. One of the 24 Apollo astronauts to reach the Moon, he orbited it 74 times in the command module (CM) Endeavour. Worden was born in Michigan in 1932; he spent his early years living on farms and attended the University of Michigan for one year, before securing an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. Graduating in 1955, he elected to be commissioned in the United States Air Force, though he had no piloting experience. He proved adept at flying fighter planes, and honed his skills, becoming a test pilot before his selection as a Group 5 astronaut in 1966. He served on the support crew for Apollo 9 and the backup crew for Apollo 12 before his selection for the Apollo 15 crew in 1970, with David Scott as commander and James Irwin as lunar module pilot. After Apollo 15 reached lunar orbit, and his crewmates landed on the Moon, Worden spent three days alone in the CM, becoming in the process the individual who traveled the farthest from any other human being, a distinction he still holds. He took many photographs of the Moon and operated a suite of scientific instruments that probed the Moon. During Apollo 15's return flight to Earth, Worden performed an extravehicular activity (EVA), or spacewalk, to retrieve film cassettes from cameras on the exterior of the spacecraft. It was the first "deep space" EVA in history, and as of 2026 remains the one that has taken place farthest from Earth. After their return, the crew became involved in a controversy over postal covers they had taken to the Moon; they were reprimanded by NASA and did not fly in space again. Worden remained at NASA until 1975 at the Ames Research Center, then entered the private sector. He engaged in a variety of business activities, and had a longtime involvement with the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, serving as chair of its board of directors from 2005 until 2011. He made many public appearances, promoting a renewed space program and education in the sciences, before his death in 2020. Early life and education Alfred Merrill Worden was born February 7, 1932, in Jackson, Michigan, the son of Merrill Bangs Worden and Helen Garnett Worden (née Crowell). The second of six children, and the oldest of the four boys, Alfred Merrill Worden lived on his family's farm outside the city of Jackson, though the family stayed part of the time at his maternal grandparents' farm near East Jordan. Worden attended Dibble, Griswold, Bloomfield and East Jackson grade schools and graduated from Jackson High School, where he became the student council president. He was a Boy Scout and earned the rank of First Class Scout. His family was not wealthy, so Worden sought a scholarship to enable his studies. He was able to secure one to the University of Michigan, but it was good for only one year. Seeing the U.S. service academies as his road to an education, Worden took an entrance examination and was offered appointments both to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and to the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. He selected West Point and began his studies there in July 1951. Worden later stated, "There was no way I was going to live the rest of my life on a farm. That kind of got me started down the path that led to NASA." Worden came to like the demanding life at West Point, especially once he passed the initial stages of his military education and was given greater responsibility within the Corps of Cadets. In addition to his studies, he participated in cross country running, gymnastics and cheerleading. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in military science from West Point in 1955, finishing 47th out of 470 in his class. Military service 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, and some of Worden's instructors urged this course upon him. He chose the Air Force, thinking promotion would be faster, something he subsequently learned was not the case. Worden received primary flight training at Moore Air Force Base, Texas, where he learned to fly on Beechcraft T-34 trainer aircraft, coming to love piloting. Worden advanced for training at Laredo Air Force Base, Texas, on Lockheed T-33 jet trainers, and after eight months went on to Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, for Air Defense Command training, flying F-86D Sabres. Worden first post-training assignment was with the 95th Fighter Interceptor Squadron at Andrews Air Force Base, near Washington, D.C., where he flew F-86Ds, and later, F-102 Delta Daggers. In addition to serving as a pilot there from March 1957 until May 1961, he was his squadron's armament officer. Seeking both to advance his career and to benefit the Air Force, Worden in 1961 asked to be sent to study aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan. He earned Master of Science degrees in aerospace engineering and instrumentation engineering from the University of Michigan 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 and be trained 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 (ARPS), to which he was ordered at the specific request of its commandant, Colonel Chuck Yeager, and from which he graduated in September 1965. NASA career Selection 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, with which the agency could not interfere. Worden thought he would be beyond NASA's age limit for new astronauts when next free to consider such a career option, and so 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 program, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory, with qualified pilots in the Air Force free to apply for either or both. Believing, as proved correct, that the Air Force program would never get off the ground, Worden chose to apply only to NASA, which he did in September 1965. Worden wrote in his first book of memoirs that "professionally, I 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 December 1, 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, the astronauts' supervisor, 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, and Worden perceived some resentment at the new intake from more senior astronauts as the competition for spots on Apollo missions intensified. Early assignments On October 3, 1966, Chief Astronaut Alan Shepard assigned Worden and four other Group 5 selectees, Ken Mattingly, Jack Swigert, Ronald Evans and Vance Brand, to the astronaut team dealing with the Block II command module (CM), headed by Pete Conrad. The Block I command modules were intended only for Apollo's initial Earth-orbit flights, and in fact never flew in space on a crewed mission; the Block II modules would go to lunar orbit. The following month, Worden was assigned as part of the support crew for the second crewed Apollo mission, along with Fred Haise and Edgar Mitchell. Apollo support crews were to do the things that the prime and backup crews did not have time for. Worden took the assignment as an indication that NASA management, including Slayton, was pleased with him. Worden was at North American Aviation's plant in Downey, California, where the Block II command module was being built, on January 27, 1967, when he received an urgent phone call from Slayton, informing him that all three Apollo 1 astronauts had been killed in a fire at the launch pad, where a test was under way. Worden informed the other astronauts on-site and they flew back to Houston. He was especially saddened by the fact that the three accomplished pilots who were to make up the first Apollo space crew died on the ground, rather than flying. During the complete safety review that followed, Worden spent much of his time in Downey working on the Block II CM, seeking (with other CM specialists such as Swigert) to remove potential combustibles and other hazards. After the pause, he remained on the support crew for the second Apollo mission, which was to include testing of the CM and Lunar Module (LM) in Earth orbit. This mission was initially designated Apollo 8. There were delays in the development of the LM and in August 1968, NASA official George Low proposed that if Apollo 7 in October went well, Apollo 8 should go to lunar orbit without a LM, so as not to hold up the program. The Earth-orbit test would become Apollo 9. The crew who had been scheduled for Apollo 8, led by Jim McDivitt, became the Apollo 9 crew, and Worden became part of that mission's support crew along with Mitchell and Jack Lousma. Worden was named as backup command module pilot (CMP) for the Apollo 12 flight. Apollo 9's CMP had been David Scott, who became, by the normal rotation of crews instituted by Slayton, the backup commander of Apollo 12 and the prospective commander of Apollo 15, with Worden likely to be the CMP of Apollo 15's prime crew. Jim Irwin was named backup lunar module pilot (LMP) for Apollo 12, with similar prospects of flying on Apollo 15. Slayton, in his memoirs, mentioned that Worden had been on the support crew for Apollo 9, and deemed him a "logical choice". Worden wrote in his own autobiography that he and Irwin had learned of their selection for Apollo 12 at a meeting in Scott's office. As Apollo 12's backup command module pilot, Worden forged a close, lifelong friendship with the prime crew's CMP, Dick Gordon, with whom he trained. Worden remembered, "Dick was my buddy. We flew together and worked together for a year and a half when he was training for Apollo 12 and I was his backup. We just went everywhere together. We worked really hard but it was also a lot of fun." Gordon and Worden learned navigational techniques for space so that if communications with Mission Control failed, the CMP could bring the craft home. Worden remembered that the Apollo 12 prime crew, led by Pete Conrad, had a close bond and drove matching black and gold Chevrolet Corvettes at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). In reaction, the backup crew secured a red one for Irwin, white for Worden, and a blue car for Scott, both emphasizing their individuality within the crew and making them less conspicuous at times when they did not want to be recognized as astronauts, especially since the three cars were rarely seen together. Apollo 15 Preparation and launch Scott, Worden, and Irwin were