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Honoring the life of Apollo astronaut Al Worden

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MaryLiz Bender
Cosmic Perspective Co-Founder, Creative Director

“We remember this pioneer whose work expanded our horizons.”

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine
On March 18, 2020, Al Worden passed away in his sleep at age 88. He was a vibrant soul who spent his life as a test pilot, NASA astronaut and aerospace scientist, speaker, space evangelist, and poet.
Earth from the Moon
The below photo of the crescent Earth was taken by Al Worden in 1971 as his command module orbited the Moon during the Apollo 15 mission.

“Now I know why I’m here. Not for a closer look at the Moon, but to look back at our home, the Earth.”

Al Worden

Al often spoke of the transformational experience of his time in space, reflecting back on the Earth and looking out into a wall of stars. While many Apollo astronauts often say, “We should’ve sent poets,” to describe their experience in space, Al Worden became a poet himself, writing several books. In 1974, he published Hello Earth: Greetings from Endeavour and the children’s book, I Want to Know About a Flight to the Moon. In 2011, he released his memoir, Falling to Earth.

Rising From Earth

A vibration, a roar
Motion
Shaking, rattling we lift
Straight up

We climb on plumes of thunder
Into a rising sun
And away from reality

Goodbye my friends
You are gone
The whole world has gone
On a trip

But this must be finished
Faster, faster, can’t turn back
Insignificant, I am insignificant

Lights flash, panel moves
Floating in nothingness
Then softly, softly,
The movement begins again
Push up the switch
And suddenly light everywhere

Earth is floating aimlessly, serenely
Peopled, I know, by intelligent life
Man is ever driven on
Vision greater than deed

Floating so far
Extending the realm of man
Born again in light of day
And everything is suddenly right.

– Al Worden

Al’s passion for educating children about space landed him on the beloved “Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood,” where he discussed his experience in space.
As Endeavor command module pilot for the Apollo 15 mission, Al Worden earned the title of “most isolated human being” by the Guinness Book of World Records. While his fellow astronauts test-drove the brand new buggy on the surface of the Moon, Al was 2,235 miles away from any other human beings. He claims he thoroughly enjoyed orbiting the Moon in isolation for a total of 3 days.
Al Worden carrying out the most distant spacewalk in history
During his return flight to Earth, Al carried out the most distant spacewalk in history, 196,000 miles from Earth. It was also the first-ever “deep space” EVA.
Al dedicated his life to space evangelism, often making appearances and speeches in pursuit of a revitalized space program.

I think it gave people in this country a great sense of pride in something that they did. And, I think that the pride was stronger than the difficulties and the stresses and the arguments that were going on.

Al Worden
When I met Al before he passed, he spoke of the unifying challenge of space exploration in the context of the Apollo 8 mission which occurred amongst the turmoil of the ’60s. This mission gifted us “Earthrise,” which gave way to our ecological movement, Earth Day, and a new worldview.

“I take a long-range view of things… I like to look ahead 10,000 years… I don’t care what’s going on today, we’re going to solve the problems we have and we’re going to continue on in space…”

Al Worden

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