![\"Al](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20078588099636.jpg.jpg\")
Once his moonwalking crewmates were back on board and headed home, Worden performed the first deep-space spacewalk \u2014 nearly 200,000 miles (322,000 kilometers) from Earth. He inspected the service module\u2019s science instrument bay and retrieved film. His foray outside lasted just 38 minutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Worden said of the mission: \u201cNow I know why I\u2019m here. Not for a closer look at the Moon, but to look back at our home, the Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apollo 15 was Worden\u2019s only spaceflight. He was in NASA\u2019s fifth astronaut class, chosen in 1966. He retired from NASA in 1975 and went to work for a few aerospace companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Of the 24 men who flew to the moon from 1968 through 1972, only 11 are still alive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Born and raised on a farm in Jackson, Michigan, Worden graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1955 and was commissioned in the Air Force. He attended test pilot school. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAs I was growing up, aviation was not really something that was foremost in my mind,\u201d Worden said in a 2000 oral history for NASA. \u201cFrom the age of 12 on, I basically ran the farm, did all the field work, milked the cows, did all that until I left for college.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While in the Air Force, \u201cI began to realize that flying was kind of my game. It was a thing that I was very attuned to.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going to the moon was \u201clike flying an airplane,\u201d Worden said in the NASA oral history. \u201cIt\u2019s a skill that you learn. It takes some knowledge. It takes some analytical ability if something goes wrong, but outside of that it\u2019s like driving a car.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Working as a senior aerospace scientist at NASA\u2019s Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, after the flight was more intellectually stimulating, he noted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In his 2011 book \u201cFalling to Earth: An Apollo 15 Astronaut\u2019s Journey to the Moon,\u201d Worden wrote that NASA was leery about young children watching a rocket launch and so he called Fred Rogers in Pittsburgh. Worden, the father of three daughters, ended up doing a special show. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was so outside of what most astronauts did, many thought I was crazy. Astronauts liked to think they were super jocks who hunted, fished, drank, and chased girls. We didn\u2019t do kiddies\u2019 shows.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n A list of children\u2019s questions eventually led to Worden\u2019s 1974 book for children \u201cI Want to Know about a Flight to the Moon.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n After returning from the moon, all three Apollo 15 astronauts became embroiled in a controversy over a few hundred stamped postal covers that flew with them to the moon. The astronauts planned to sell them to help pay for their children\u2019s education, Worden said in the NASA oral history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Worden said he assumed the stamped covers were on the official flight manifest, but wasn\u2019t sure now that they ever were. All this resulted in \u201cquite a flap.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n None of the three ever flew in space again. He blamed NASA management. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSome senator or some congressman asked the question, and they caved under right away and tried to get rid of us,\u201d he said in the oral history. \u201cNobody stood up for us. Nobody.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Worden sued the U.S. government in 1983 and got his covers back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe probably didn\u2019t do the smartest thing in the world, but we didn\u2019t do anything that was illegal,\u201d he said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t do anything that anybody else hadn\u2019t done, but the consequences were rather severe to us.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Worden most recently worked with Kallman, a New Jersey businessman, on promoting science, engineering and math education, as well as providing scholarships for international young people to attend Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat foundation lives on and he lives on through it as well,\u201d Kallman said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute\u2019s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apollo 15 astronaut Al Worden, who circled the moon alone in 1971 while his two crewmates test-drove the first lunar rover, died Wednesday at age 88.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":92860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":12,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,12,26],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1756],"class_list":["post-54634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"EH4RUYIY7FFHPJW2IYGBZKO6KU","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-military\/2020\/03\/19\/apollo-15-astronaut-al-worden-who-circled-moon-dies-at-88\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"Al](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP20078588144289.jpg.jpg\")