Apollo Presentation

Landon Wood, 10th Grade, Northville, MI

On October 21, 2011 I attended a presentation at the University of Michigan – Ann Arbor about Apollo 15. This was the “all University of Michigan crew” mission. UM makes a big deal of this. Mr. Al Worden was the guest of honor, and spoke to the audience for about 20 minutes. He was very colorful and lively. Mr. Worden was the Command Module Pilot for Apollo 15 during its July 26, 1971 to August 7, 1971 flight. These were his key points:

• Apollo 15 was, at the time, cited by NASA as the most successful manned space flight ever.
• UM was very instrumental to his success.
• STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) is extremely.
• The current administration is not following the best path as far as space and NASA are concerned, but the US will soon again embrace ambitious space projects, like going to Mars!
• Robotic missions are no match for manned missions. It does, though, make sense to send robots before sending humans.

Representatives (UM grads) from Lockheed Martin were also at this event. They had a booth dedicated to Orion – the next-generation crew exploration vehicle (CEV). I learned a lot about the special new safety features, e.g. the launch abort system. I also learned that budget cuts have caused a lot of cancellations and delays, and that these kinds of hurdles are to be expected.
This was a fascinating presentation, especially since Mr. Worden was part of this mission himself.