Alfred 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 24 people to have flown to 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.

Alfred Merrill Worden was born February 7, 1932, in Jackson, Michigan, the son of Merrill Bangs Worden (1904–1978) and Helen Garnett Worden (Crowell; 1909–2004).

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.

Graduating in 1955, he elected to be commissioned in the United States Air Force, though he had no piloting experience.

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.

In addition to serving as a pilot there from March 1957 until May 1961, he was his squadron's armament officer.

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.

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.

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 Apollo15 crew in 1970, with David Scott as commander and James Irwin as lunar module pilot.

After Apollo 15 reached lunar orbit, and his crewmates departed to land 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 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.

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.

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.