March 16, 2015 - Saluting Jim Irwin

Saluting Jim Irwin James Irwin, born eighty-five years ago today, flew in space only once, but that one flight was to the Moon. Selected as a NASA astronaut in 1966, Irwin was the Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 15 and the eighth person to walk on the Moon. In July 1971, Irwin and mission Commander Dave Scott landed on the Moon at the base of the Apennine Mountains and Hadley Rille. They were the first astronauts to drive a Lunar Roving Vehicle to travel greater distances from the Lunar Module. Irwin left NASA in 1972, and in subsequent years he achieved notoriety by leading several expeditions to Mount Ararat in Turkey, where he believed he would find the remains of Noah’s Ark. Irwin had a fatal heart attack in 1991; he was the first Apollo moonwalker to die and, at sixty-one, the youngest.

Image credit: NASA

Weekly Calendar

March 16-22, 2015

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 16

1750: Caroline Herschel born
1926: Robert Goddard launches first liquid fuel rocket
1966: Gemini VIII launched
1975: Mariner 10’s 3rd Mercury flyby

Tuesday 17

St. Patrick’s Day

1930: Jim Irwin born
1958: Vanguard 1 launched, first solar-powered satellite
1972: NASA issues request for proposals for Space Shuttle
2011: MESSENGER becomes first spacecraft to orbit Mercury