Apollo astronaut Al Worden, 1932-2020

One of only 24 people to have flown to the Moon, he spent three days in lunar orbit while fellow astronauts David Scott and James Irwin explored the surface during Apollo 15. 

It was recognised that on the highest of his orbits on board the Command & Service Module Endeavour, Col. Worden became the world’s most isolated human being. The orbiting spacecraft was 3597 km away from Scott and Irwin at the time, and at its farthest point from Earth.

He was also the first astronaut to conduct a spacewalk beyond low Earth orbit during Apollo 15’s return trip from the Moon, retrieving film cassettes from cameras stored outside the vehicle. Apollo 15 was one of most scientifically productive of NASA's lunar missions.

Col. Worden was a very active speaker and populariser of science and engineering for younger generations, travelling extensively around the world and giving interviews on his vision of past and future spaceflight.

A strong supporter of European space activities, he always made a point of visiting ESA stands at the Paris and Farnborough International Air Shows, and he regularly made appearances at a variety of public events across Europe. In 2011, he visited ESA’s ESTEC facility and neighbouring Space Expo museum in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.

Born in February 1932, he was the second in a family of six children, growing up on a farm outside Jackson, Michigan. Always fascinated by aviation, he attended the US Military Academy at West Point, joining the US Air Force in 1955, and later went on to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Michigan.

In 1965, he graduated from the Empire Test Pilot School in Farnborough, UK, and then served as an instructor at the US Aerospace Research Pilots School in California. During his time at Farnborough, he became very fond of the UK, visiting often in later years.

Col. Worden was selected as a NASA astronaut in April 1966. He served as a member of Apollo 9’s support crew, and was the backup Command Module Pilot for Apollo 12. On Apollo 15, he went to the Moon and back from 26 July to 2 August 1971.

From 1972 to 1975, Col. Worden worked at NASA’s Ames Research Center. After leaving NASA and the USAF in 1975, he worked on aircraft technology development with several commercial companies for the next 35 years.

Col. Worden served as chair of the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation until 2011, providing scholarships to exceptional science and engineering students, and in 2019 helped set up the Al Worden Endeavour Scholarship initiative with education partners in the UK.

Last year, Col. Worden was in contact with ESA scientists working on X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy projects, specifically one using data from the X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometers flown on Apollos 15 and 16. 

Col. Worden provided information on this instrument, an original flight spare version of which was being tested at ESTEC. He was fascinated with these results and the intention had been to reunite Col. Worden with this instrument on his next visit to Europe. The unit is now on public display at Space Expo. 

His autobiography, Falling To Earth, was published in 2011, written in collaboration with US-based British author Francis French.