In Book 15, Hector is restored to his strength by Apollo and returns to attack the ships.

Although previous Apollo expeditions, including Apollo 14 and Apollo 15 obtained samples of pre-mare lunar material, before lava began to upwell from the Moon's interior and flood the low areas and basins, none had actually visited the lunar highlands.

Likewise, Apollo 15 had also sampled material in the region of Imbrium, visiting the basin's edge.

There remained the possibility, because both the Apollo 14 and Apollo 15 landing sites were closely associated with the Imbrium basin, that different geologic processes were prevalent in areas of the lunar highlands far from Mare Imbrium.

There also remained the distinct possibility that this objective had already been satisfied by the Apollo 14 and Apollo 15 missions, as the Apollo 14 samples had not yet been completely analyzed and samples from Apollo 15 had not yet been obtained.

While deploying a heat-flow experiment that had burned up with the Lunar Module Aquarius on Apollo 13 and had been attempted without success on Apollo 15, a cable was inadvertently snapped after getting caught around Young's foot.

After returning to the LM to wrap up the second lunar excursion, the two astronauts climbed back inside the landing craft's cabin, sealing and pressurizing the interior after 7 hours, 23 minutes, and 26 seconds of EVA time, breaking a record that had been set on Apollo 15.

Launch of Apollo 15 Saturn V rocket: T-30 s through T + 40 s.

A total of 15 Moon walks were performed by members of six Apollo crews, including Charles " Pete " Conrad, Alan Bean, Alan Shepard, Edgar Mitchell, David Scott, James Irwin, John Young, Charles Duke, Eugene " Gene " Cernan and Dr. Harrison " Jack " Schmitt.

The first EVA in deep space was made on August 5, 1971, by American Al Worden, to retrieve a film and data recording canister from the Apollo 15 Service Module on the return trip from the Moon.

In March 1970 he became the first of the scientist-astronauts to be assigned to space flight, joining Richard F. Gordon, Jr. ( Commander ) and Vance Brand ( Command Module Pilot ) on the Apollo 15 backup crew.

* 1971 – Apollo program: launch of Apollo 15 on the first Apollo " J-Mission ", and first use of a Lunar Roving Vehicle.

Armstrong's second and last spaceflight was as mission commander of the Apollo 11 moon landing, in July 1969.

* June 2 – Charles Conrad, American astronaut and moonwalker, commander of Apollo 12 ( d. 1999 )

In March 1966 he was selected as Senior Pilot ( second seat ) for the first manned Apollo flight, designated AS-204, along with Command Pilot Virgil " Gus " Grissom, who had flown in space on the Mercury 4 Liberty Bell 7 mission and as commander of the Gemini 3 Molly Brown mission, and Pilot Roger Chaffee, who had yet to fly into space.

Hanks ' next role — astronaut and commander Jim Lovell, in the 1995 film Apollo 13 — reunited him with Ron Howard.

Komarov's name also appears on a plaque left at Hadley Rille on the Moon by the commander of Apollo 15, David Scott, along with a small sculpture representing the " Fallen Astronaut " on August 1, 1971.

Shortly after Gemini 10, Collins was assigned to the backup crew for the second manned Apollo flight, with commander Frank Borman, command module pilot ( CMP ) Thomas Stafford and Collins as lunar module pilot ( LMP ).

Slayton offered to get him back into the crew sequence after the flight, and according to Collins, this would probably have been as backup commander of Apollo 14 followed by commander of Apollo 17.

In addition, Weatherford is the hometown of astronaut Thomas P. Stafford, veteran of four space flights and commander of the Gemini 9, Apollo 10 missions and the Apollo-Soyuz project.

On November 14, 1969, Apollo 12 launched with Conrad as commander, Dick Gordon as Command Module Pilot and Alan Bean as Lunar Module Pilot.

During the Apollo program, the Lunar Module was equipped with hammocks for the commander and lunar module pilot to sleep in between moonwalks.

He has been into space three times: as pilot of Gemini 9A in June 1966 ; as lunar module pilot of Apollo 10 in May 1969 ; and as commander of Apollo 17 in December 1972, the final Apollo lunar landing.

John Watts Young ( born September 24, 1930 ) is a retired American astronaut, Naval officer, test pilot and aeronautical engineer, who became the ninth person to walk on the Moon as commander of the Apollo 16 mission in 1972.

The assignment of Ed White, the Gemini 7 backup commander, to Apollo created an opening for Young as commander of Gemini 10 in 1966.

Young was backup commander of Apollo 13, the troubled mission in which the moon landing was aborted because of an explosion in the Service Module.

By rotation, Young became commander of Apollo 16, and was an enthusiastic student of geology while preparing for the mission.

Young's final assignment in Apollo was as the backup commander for Cernan on Apollo 17, after Cernan injured his knee playing softball a few months before the flight.

Scott made his third and final flight into space as commander of the Apollo 15 mission, the fourth human lunar landing, becoming the seventh person to walk on the Moon and the first person to drive on the Moon.

While the Mercury capsule could only support one astronaut on a limited Earth orbital mission, the Apollo spacecraft was to be able to carry three astronauts on a circumlunar flight and eventually to a lunar landing.

File: Apollo 17 astronaut Ronald E. Evans performs an extravehicular activity during the trans-Earth coast. jpg | Evans performs an EVA before returning home.

Canyon of Heroes during a ticker-tape parade for the Apollo 11 astronaut s on August 13, 1969

Cernan was the last Apollo astronaut to step off the surface of the Moon.

Upon his return to the astronaut corps in Houston, he played a key role in training Apollo crews to be geologic observers when they were in lunar orbit and competent geologic field workers when they were on the lunar surface.

View of the Earth, taken in 1972 by the Apollo 17 astronaut crew.

The first flight of Columbia ( STS-1 ) was commanded by John Young, a Gemini and Apollo veteran who was the ninth person to walk on the Moon in 1972, and piloted by Robert Crippen, a rookie astronaut originally selected to fly on the military's Manned Orbital Laboratory ( MOL ) spacecraft, but transferred to NASA after its cancellation, and served as a support crew member for the Skylab and Apollo-Soyuz missions.

* November 14 – Fred Haise, American astronaut who flew in Apollo 13

* January 20 – Buzz Aldrin, American pilot and astronaut, Apollo 11 second person to set foot on the Moon

* August 5 – Neil Armstrong, American astronaut, first human to set foot on the Moon, Commander of Apollo 11 ( d. 2012 )

* October 31 – Michael Collins, astronaut, second person to fly around the Moon solo, Command Module pilot on Apollo 11, the first human lunar landing

He was also named the astronaut specialist for the flight control systems of the Apollo Command / Service Module.

Roger Bruce Chaffee ( February 15, 1935 – January 27, 1967 ), Lieutenant Commander, United States Navy, was a Naval Aviator, aeronautical engineer and a NASA astronaut in the Apollo program.

Lunar Extravehicular activity | EVA space suit worn by astronaut Buzz Aldrin on Apollo 11

Ten years later, at age 47 the oldest astronaut in the program, Shepard commanded the Apollo 14 mission, piloting the lander to the most accurate landing of the Apollo missions.

Edwin Eugene " Buzz " Aldrin, Jr. ( born January 20, 1930 ) is a retired American astronaut who was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 11, the first manned lunar landing in history.

Hadfield was raised on a corn farm in southern Ontario and became interested in flying at a young age — from his own words in the interview to STRF. RU, he came to the idea of being astronaut when he was nine on the day of Apollo moon landing, which he had seen on TV then.

Photo of Apollo 17 astronaut Eugene Cernan with the Earth in the background

Frank Frederick Borman, II ( born March 14, 1928 ) is a retired NASA astronaut, best remembered as the Commander of Apollo 8, the first mission to fly around the Moon, making him, along with fellow crew mates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, the first of only 24 humans to do so.

He served as backup command module pilot for the Apollo 11 mission, before accepting an assignment with the National Aeronautics and Space Council, while still remaining an astronaut.

Anders had been an Apollo 8 astronaut and part of the backup crew for Apollo 11.