Now, 25 seconds. We have complete clearance for launch. We are go. 20. 15 seconds, guidance internal, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, ignition sequence, start, engines arm, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, all engines running, launch commit. Lift off, we have lift off at 9:34 a.m. Eastern Daylight time. The tower is clear. And we have a roll program. Yeah, we clear. Roger, roll complete. And we have pitch program. Roger. Roger, 10. Roger 10. Booster Systems Engineering reports to flight director that S1C stage looking good. And everything looks perfect down here. Okay, we're ready to clear that module. Coming up on 20 seconds. Mark, 20 seconds to TLI ignition. Kevin, mission? Roger, ignition. 15 Houston, we're showing good thrust. 15 Houston, the centering on the picture is good now and we're getting an excellent quality picture. Very good. We're almost there. Capture. Roger. Are we tracking? Roger. Hard dock Houston. Roger. Okay guys, go ahead. Okay, Joe, ready. Look about 5.3 on the and about 4.7 on the EMS. That sounds beautiful troops. All right, Roger guys, when you're comfortably through with the procedure here, uh we'd like for you to turn the thrust light out for us please, by pulling the EMS, main A and B, circuit breakers, two of them on panel eight. Roger both open, the light is out. Okay, Dave, and that the reason for that is just to uh conserve that light bulb in a little power. And uh that burn was exactly what we wanted to see. We'll proceed with the normal mission. Oh, that's nice to hear. I'm a smooth talker, aren't I? Well, I'm glad you guys down there can figure all this out. And guys, uh further word here, uh as you're probably already aware, uh the shore is in what we've been calling the downstream side of that uh driver solenoid and uh it means uh only that uh it's a little bit annoying to have. We can still turn bank A on and off as we want. We might modify a few procedures a little bit but uh we haven't lost that bank. Okay, very good. Thank you, Joe. Let's go to Hadley. 15, this is Houston. How do you read? Hello Houston, the ever is on station with cargo and what a fantastic site. Beautiful news, romantic, isn't it? Uh this is really profound. I'll tell you. Fantastic. And uh Houston, we're over uh Bear Christian at the present time, and uh the sites are really striking. I guess some of the interesting things we've noted uh is the variation in albedo from white to dark gray, with many uh variations of uh gray in between. And many times this albedo change appears without any uh significant change in topography other than uh perhaps a mountain ridge or a chain or a wrinkle ridge or something, but there there are many variations in the albedo uh all over the surface. I guess our general consensus is that it's gray. We haven't noticed any brown yet. 15, this is Houston. Hello Houston, Apollo 15. The Falcon is on its perch. Good to hear you coming around that corner. How do things look? Okay, burn status report. Burn was on time. Burn time was about 24.0, about uh half a second shorter than predicted. Uh there was no trim. Residuals were plus .6, plus .0, minus .1. Delta V C minus 4.4. Fuel 29. 29.25 and the oxidizer was 29.55, unbalance uh 100 increase. Thank you, Dave. We copy all of that. Coming right. 40. 5,000 ft, 39. 39. 38. 39, 4,000 ft. 40, 41, 45, 47, 52, 3,000 ft, 52, 52, 51, 50. 47. 47, 2,000 ft. 42. Okay, got a good spot. at 42. 43, 1,900 ft. Falcon, Houston, you go for landing. 45. Roger, go for landing. 44. 45, 1,000 ft. 45. 900, 45. 800, 45. 700, 46. 600, 48. 500, 49, -7T. -15. 400 and -14. Up P66. Okay. 300 ft, -11. -11, 250. -11, 9% fuel. 200, -11. 150, -7. -6. 120 ft, -6. Dale Guts and Lewis. -5, 100 ft and 5. 9% fuel, -5. 80 at 5. -3. 60 at 3. 50 at 3, cross pointers look good. 40 at 3. 33. 25, 2. 7% fuel. 20 at 1. 15 at 1. -1. -1, 6% fuel. 10 ft, -1. 8 ft, -1, Contact. Man. Okay, Houston, the Falcon is on the plane at Hadley. Roger, Roger Falcon. Okay, Joe, we've got all the photos. Check those, Jim. Okay, I got it. Hey let me start uh, by uh, 12:00 Joe and I'll go around real quick. On the uh furthest in horizon, apparently across the rill, I can see uh, just about our 1 o'clock now, a uh a very large mountain, which I'd have to call uh Hill 305. Roger, and uh, all of the all of the features around here are very smooth. The tops of the mountains are rounded off. Uh there are no sharp jagged peaks, there are no large boulders apparent anywhere. The whole surface of uh the area appears to be smooth, with the largest fragments I can see, are in the uh wall of Pluton. Uh there are no boulders at all on uh Saint George, Hill 305 Bennett or as far as I can tell, look at uh background of Hadley, Hadley's sort of in the shadow. Uh the gently rolling terrain completely around 360 degrees on the key, much like uh you saw on 14. The uh pitch line across the rill uh from Hill 305 around to 1 o'clock, seems to be a slightly lighter in albedo with some uh slight uh marks from uh craters, recent craters apparently. Uh Bennett Hill also has uh a lighter colored albedo, one face of it uh that facing the sun now is almost completely light. As I come around to my 2 o'clock, uh the horizon is really the northern complex, I can see, as I mentioned before, Chain, Archimedes and Pluton, very rounded sub-dute craters. Uh, it looks like the southern rim of Pluton is on the same level as our uh location here, the northern rim is somewhat higher, I'd say uh differences are difficult but maybe uh 50 m higher. I can see the sharp on the other side of the north rim of Pluton, all of it very flat, smooth, but gently rolling. If I look on around uh the north, uh Mount Hadley itself is in the shadow, although I can see that the uh ridge line on the top of Mount Hadley and too is smooth. I see no jagged peaks of any sort. Uh the hill, I would call number 22 on your map, uh far distance also looks smooth, rounded, no prominent features. I'll uh skip the distance field around to my 6 o'clock because it's all in the shadow and looking into the sun, of course, it obliterates almost everything. As I look on down to uh my uh 7 o'clock, I guess I'd see Index Crater here, the near field but uh back up on uh Hadley to the east of the Hadley Delta, I again I can see uh smooth surface, however I can see elements, there's some very interesting lake, uh there's some very interesting take uh pass. And look at the 13 on your map. I can't tell whether it's 13 or 16 right now because of the sun, but there appear to be linear formations running dipping to the northeast, parallel. Uh and they appear to be maybe 3% to 4% of the total elevation of the mountain, uh almost uh uniform. I can't tell whether it's structure or internal stratigraphy or what, but there are definite linear features there dipping to the to the northeast at about, uh I'd say 30°. That capability looks pretty good. It's on the key. I think we'll have to keep track of our position, but I think, uh we can manipulate the rover fairly well on a straight line, and I I can see the base of the front, as near as I can tell, I don't know if I I think I see where the front runs into, uh the level ground where we get that 5° inflection. I see no boulders over there whatsoever. It looks like we'll be able to get around pretty good. Yeah. This is really a rock and roll ride, isn't it? I've just been on a ride like this before, oh boy. I'm glad they got this great suspension system on this thing. Boy, that's a big mountain when you're down here looking up, isn't it? My oh my. This is as big a mountain as I ever looked up. Dave, do you see spurs as you look up there? the craters in that one directly ahead. Oh, yeah, I see what you mean, Dave. See that? See how there are, let's see, one, two, three, four, at least four, lined up, going uh upslope. Yeah, right on the wall of the crater. Yeah. Just perfectly linear and perfectly uniform craters, little ones, maybe Yeah, but look, there's a a rock just below those. I wonder if they could have bounced, no, I couldn't be that many. Yeah, we're going at the base of the front we're going down into a little depression that runs along the front. We came over another north sound trending ridge and uh we're going down a little bit and then we're going to start up again. We have to say what happens to rover speed here as we start upslope. Yeah, because we are starting upslope. I'd estimate uh three to 5 degrees. Yep. Okay. And then take a little lead to the left here. All the those weren't very big holes at all were they? It's just a shadow made of one. Dave and Jim, what was the bearing on that chain of craters you described? Me too. Joe, it was just a very subtle little maybe half foot craters in the size of a 4 meter crater, uh that showed up very well in the shadow. Okay. That was just at a 348 for 4.3 where we are right now. And uh we stopped. And let's take a gander around, and see which way we ought to head. You know, Dave, if we can make it out that far correctly ahead of us, look at the large blocks. You mean let's come downslope, yeah, at 12:00. No, yeah, in my way. Okay, that's that's as good a way as any. Go ahead, uh 140 from here. And I have the 500 out. And look at that rill. How about that? How about that geology, man? the top of the rill down there. Uh there's there's uh debris all the way. And it looks like uh some outcrops directly at about 11:00 to the uh sunline. It uh looks like a layer, about 5% of the uh the real wall with a vertical uh face on it. And within the vertical face I can see other small lineations horizontal, about uh maybe 10% of that that unit. And that unit outcrops uh along the rill. It's about 10% from the top and it's uh somewhat irregular, but it looks to be a continuous layer. It may be uh portions of of uh flows, but uh they're generally at at about the 10% level. I can see another one at about 12:00 to the sunline, which is somewhat thinner, maybe 5% of the total depth of the rill. However, it has uh more well defined interior internal layering of about uh 10% of of its thickness. I can see maybe uh 10 very well defined layers within that unit. Beautiful Dave. Beautiful. Let's go down to rill, below this below this uh upper layer at 10%. Uh there seems to be mostly debris in the order of uh large angular fragments, maybe uh the largest being like 5% of the total depth of the rill, and then they they gradually uh break on down to a very small fragments and a talus slope. I see no significant collection of talus at any level. It seems to be fairly uh uniformly distributed in patches all the way down to as far as I can see to the bottom of the rill. And looking uh on to my uh 12:30 to 1:00 on up the rill, and I guess we'll get a little closer when we get down to uh sampling it down there. Why, it it looks very much the same, outcrops of this one uh unit irregularly spaced, discontinuous, but along the general 10% from the top line with a talus sliding down uh into the bottom of the rill. I see no difference in uh color. However, the uh vertical uh section of the of the unit which is exposed looks to be somewhat lighter in gray. The blocks which have uh fallen down in the talus seem to be uh have a a a more tan or or uh different tone of gray uh color to them, sort of like the uh the fresh vertical section was uh more recently exposed. Let me uh let's you digest that for a minute. Let me take a bunch of 500, so I'll get you the vertical and the horizontal and uh boy, there's lots of things to shoot at over there. Oh, look at the mountains today, Jim, when they're all sunlit, isn't that beautiful? It really is, my golly, that's just super. It's, you know, unreal. Dave, I'm reminded of a favorite biblical passage. Psalm. I look unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. And of course, we get quite a bit from Houston, too. Fox. Hey, uh Houston Falcon, how do you read on Fox? Okay, loud and clear Dave, and you're go for lift off, and I assume you've taken your explorer hats off and put on your pilot hats. Roger, we sure have. Ready to do some flying. I'm going buy for one minute. Okay, driving steering is in. Okay. Mark one minute. One minute. Aster arm is on. I have two lights. Every tea is on. Ready. Board stage, engine arm, blank in. 99 probe. Quick liftoff. Automatic. Go ahead. I'm calling it. Save the 306. Hey, good smooth ride, it. Roger, copy now. Three, two, one, launch. We have a fire pole. and a gray. We confirm that. Roger, oh. Okay, Dave. Copy that. Sounds great. Can you see much? Oh, it looks like it might be oscillating maybe 10 degrees at the most. Roger Dave, copy. Apollo 15, Houston, over. Hello, Houston. Endeavour's on the way home, with the burn status report for you. Roger, sounds good. Standing by. Uh Houston 15. I'll go ahead 15. Okay, Bob, uh I've uh looking at some Humble straight south now. And in fact, I could uh draw a line between Humble and the and a great uh uh ditch or scarp uh to the south, and uh there's quite a change in the in the uh light level or the the intensity of the of the albedo and uh between those two areas and it looks like there's uh some, you know, uh clearly smooth fresh lava flows throughout that area. And in fact, we noticed that uh uh while we were in orbit also, that uh in some of those areas around Humble, there to the north of Humble and to the east of Humble, that uh the the flows in some of the of the craters there, and they're quite distinct flows. You can see where they've lapped up against the sides and you can also see where they've come where they spilled down over the sides. Uh, it's sort of a reminiscent of the Coastal Hills flow. Uh, you can uh we looked at these flows and and realized that they looked fresh, and yet they had a lot more, the crater count was a lot higher on them than it was in the surrounding terrain. And uh, this uh flow that we're kind of looking at now looks, uh it's a very large area, and it looks like it's just filled uh seeped into some craters down there, some of the larger craters. It looks much fresher in color. Uh, it hasn't it doesn't look like it's been worked over as much. The craters that the lava flow were sharper than they are uh say further to the to the uh east. Uh but the the the the count seems to be much higher, the crater count seems to be much higher even here. Uh, copy Al, very interesting. And uh Houston 15 as we leave and look back, why, I guess we still have the impression the moon is mostly gray. However, when you're upsun, as we were just prior to TEI, or when you're looking upsun, it does definitely take on a chocolate brown color. We uh came around prior to TPI on a dayside, or TEI on a dayside, uh looking backwards into the sun, across the Schroder's Valley, and it uh that was a pretty spectacular sight. And it did start turning a chocolate brown, but now everything is a variation of gray from very light to uh a gun metal gray near the terminator. Well, uh is that a unanimous? the spacecraft, Dave. Roger, I got three eyes on that one. Roger, we'll add that and continue to keep the score. We can see a point of the terminator now where we mentioned we saw a lava filling in some domes in a a depression which is not a circular crater like depression, it's a big cavity. And now I guess the sun angle is changed some, we can see where the lava has apparently spilled over a scarp into a deeper cavity which is in shadow and it's a it's very clearly a filling of a cavity with two levels. That's the 10th and the right. Okay, Houston, the pan camera is facing inside. Remember, there's no hurry up there at all. Nothing on the VORH sensor, there's no back, black paste missing. There's nothing obscuring the field of view. The glass is not cracked. The field is not obstructing the field of view. There is nothing in the way, Carl. Wait. Perfectly clear. We copy your report out, thank you. Okay. And as I look around, the mass speck is, looks like about Not quite. The cover, it looks like maybe it's been covered. This damn. Yes, in fact, it is the covered is damn. Jim, you're absolutely fantastic. You get that moon map here. That is really a most unbelievable, remarkable sight. Houston, is there anything else you want me to check in the Sim Bay before we go back in? I'll be If there's anything on the mapping camera I can check. I'll, we'd be pleased to have any general comments you have about the Sim Bay experiment, otherwise than what we specifically asked you. Did everything look in order? Okay. Now everything look good as far as I can tell except for the cover on the maps dug. And the fact that the mapping camera is um, maybe I just take another quick check back here and see if I can see anything on the mapping camera. Question number one. This last week, we have shared scores of exciting moments with you. Which single moment would you most like to live again and is there any moment which you would never like to repeat? Well, I guess we all probably have uh a different idea on uh which would be the second most exciting moment of the flight and uh maybe we'll just run through it one at a time. I guess the most impressive moment I can remember is standing up on uh Hadley Mountain, Hadley Delta and looking back at the plane and seeing the limb and the rill and Mount Hadley and uh the whole big picture in one, one swoop and I think we've got some pictures for you from up there and I believe the TV was running at the same time and I think that was uh probably the most impressive sight that I have ever seen. Yeah. I guess I'd have to say uh uh sort of two events occurred uh which were exciting uh for different reasons and uh I guess they were really kind of the highlights of uh of the flight for me. One was right after LOI, when we got our first look at the moon and uh it was a fantastic spectacular sight. And the other I guess was uh what TEI uh burned uh so beautifully and uh right after TEI, that was an awfully good feeling. Okay, well, I guess uh there were a great many uh new thrills for me and the one that was most impressive, though, was uh the lift off that began the flight, and I knew that I was going into space after uh a few years of waiting, training. And then, as far as uh the event that I would not like to, to repeat again, is probably the uh, the time when I uh fell down in front of the TV, when we were deploying the rover. Question number five for Al Worden. In lunar orbit, you two carried out geologic observations. For example, you reported cinder cones. Could you discuss this and other observations from 60 miles up? Uh, yes, the comment on the cinder cones was uh, uh, one of uh color, but we noticed uh, particularly um, on some of the lighted part of the back side, that many, many of the craters uh that we that we flew over, uh were filled with uh what appeared to be lava. There seem to be a great number of lava flows in uh, in the Mari areas, particularly Mari Imbrium. Mari Imbrium seems to be a just uh countless numbers of, of lava flows uh, which were all um, apparently very thin and and very fluid. And uh, you can see you can just count number uh numbers of uh flow fronts covering Mari Imbrium. So, we got uh, I think, quite a distinct impression of uh, of a, of a great deal of volcanism around the moon and in uh, some particular, isolated areas such as the littoral area and such as uh areas like uh, probably the Aristarchus plateau. There's a great deal of volcanism and uh some cinder cones and uh and certainly a lot of lava flows. Question number seven. You described the lunar rover as a bucking Bronco on the moon. Would you elaborate and assess the rover's performance and tell us what changes you recommend for the 1972 model? Well, there were several times there when we were riding along where we'd uh hit a sizable bump and you could you could see the uh the wheels come off the ground and and float through the air and uh the Dave should comment more as far as the the driving and uh it was really like a bucking Bronco. That's true because I was trapped in. As you know Dave had to strap me in because I had some trouble with my seat belt. But uh, I I really did feel like I was on a a bucking Bronco. I think I might add that it's a a very stable machine, but because of the uh the one-sixth gravity it tends to float. Uh, in the simulations we ran in Houston, we saw the same uh amplitude, the same uh degree of bouncing, but uh a different uh damping. In other words, the uh the the vehicle would uh come off the ground and one wheel normally would come off the ground. It would take it somewhat longer uh to return to the ground than in 1G. And I think it's just a matter of being becoming accustomed to the uh to the driving. It's a very stable vehicle. The suspension system is excellent. We had to make some uh rather uh sharp avoidance turns periodically, and uh in in these turns we could tell the vehicle was quite stable, no tendency to turn over whatsoever. Uh, I think the only recommendation we really have would be to uh uh come up with a new idea on a seat belt type arrangement and we we discussed that also. I think we have some uh suggestions we can make when we get back uh to ensure that uh you can uh have both crewmen securely in their seats uh in a short period of time. Other than that, I think uh the vehicle is uh about as optimum as you can build. To follow up, I have visual contact again. I have uh one, zero, zero for the ship or one half mile bearing is one, three, zero to the remains shoots. I have visual contact, remains shoots. Okay, no, Roger. 3:15, I was showing about a minus .2 on the Mission Director system and everybody's in good shape. All right, 15, we got a visual on you on the screen in here. Okana, recovery has recovery beacon in contact for a 175 magnetic station. Okay, Rog. Okana, I see the swim, too. I have a visual contact appearing as 010 at approximately one mile. My position 134 Okana 8.5 miles. Altitude is about 6,000 feet to the command module. Roger. Okana, this is swim 1. I have recovery beacon at 155 degrees magnetic at 27012 miles, at high miles 47046. Before I follow, I have physical contact again. I have one uh, zero, zero, one half miles bearing is a 130 to remain shoot, visual contact, remain shoot. Follow 15, I was showing about a minus point, on the Mission Directorate system and everybody is in good shape. 15, we got a visual on you on the screen in here. Okana, recovery has recovery beacon in contact for a 175 magnetic on station. Okana, I see the swim, too. I have a visual contact appearing at 010 at approximately one mile. My position, the 134 Okana 8.5 miles. Altitude is about uh 6,000 feet to the command module. Okana, this is swim 1. I have recovery peak at uh 1, 155 degrees magnetic at 27012 miles and high on 470. Before I follow, I have visual contact again. I have a 1, zero, zero one half miles bearing is a 130 to remain shoot, visual contact, remain shoot. 15, 15, this is recovery, over. Recovery the follow 15, everybody is in good shape and uh we're looking at about 3500 feet. This is a recovery, I have a visual uh 165 from me about 8 miles. They're all looking that it is a streaming. It's one to be streaming. Okana, this is 4, uh, the extra fuel has just shut us down on the car. Apollo 15, Apollo 15, this is recovery, over. This is the last contact you just covered. Apollo 15, Apollo 15, this is recovery, over. Roger, recovery 15. You are five by five, everybody is in good shape. Roger, Apollo 15. If you hear, all units have you inside and we are inbound now. Roger. Apollo 15, this is Okana, request your climb time. Roger, plus 2613, minus 15812. Apollo 15, this is Okana, visual on the 236 standby for your arm impact. Okana, over. Roger. Splashdown, marks splashdown. Landing velocity on two shoots is 28 ft per second, or 32 ft per second, versus 28 ft on three shoots. The border is in the stable one condition. Three main shoots are in the water, all visible around the spacecraft. One main shoot appears to be still attached to the command module. Apollo 15, this is recovery, over. Apollo 15, everybody's in good shape. It's great to be back. We had a great time on a trip. I think we accomplished a lot. Uh, we had a lot of support from a lot of people and uh I'd just like to say that we appreciate every bit of it and we could not have done the mission, we couldn't have gone one step without the support of the many, many thousands of people involved. Thank you very much.