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Astronaut Al Worden of Apollo 15 Diesat 88

VOA News

   One of the few Americans to see the moon close up has died.

   Astronaut Al Worden, who flew around the moon as part of the Apollo
   15missionin 1971,died in his sleep,his family said Wednesday. He was
   88.

   Wordenwas a U.S. AirForcecolonel when he joined NASA in 1966, getting
   his chance tofly to the moon five years later.

   Wordencircled the moonin the command modulewhile fellowastronautsJim
   Irwin and David Scott explored the surface.

   The highlight of the mission for Wordenwaswhen he performedthe first
   deep-spacespacewalk 322,000kilometersabove the Earth, inspecting
   thespacecraft'sscientific instrument bay.

   "Al was anAmericanhero whoseachievementsinspace and on Earth will never
   be forgotten," NASAAdministratorJim Bridenstine saidWednesday.

   Wordenonce described flying to the moon as like driving a car,only
   withsomeanalyticalability.

   Hewrote two books abouthis moon mission,includingone for children.

   Worden retired from NASA in 1975 and worked in the aerospace industry,
   but he never lost his enthusiasm for space.

   In 2019, he toldVOA's KaneFarabaugh that hewas"very optimistic" about
   the U.S. space program, saying whether it takes 100 years or 10,000
   years, the U.S. will do all the thingsit wants to do in space.

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