Editing Apollo 15 (section)

=== Crew ===
{{Spaceflight crew
|terminology      = Astronaut
|references       = <ref name="smiths">{{cite web|url=https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/apollo-program/landing-missions/apollo15-crew.cfm|title=Apollo 15 Crew|publisher=Smithsonian Air and Space Museum|access-date=December 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171230115051/https://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/apollo/apollo-program/landing-missions/apollo15-crew.cfm|archive-date=December 30, 2017|url-status=live|df=mdy-all}}</ref>
|position1        = Commander
|crew1_up         = [[David Scott]]
|flights1_up      = Third and last
|position2        = Command module pilot (CMP)
|crew2_up         = [[Alfred Worden]]
|flights2_up      = Only
|position3        = Lunar module pilot (LMP)
|crew3_up         = [[James Irwin]]
|flights3_up      = Only
}}

Scott was born in 1932 in [[San Antonio, Texas]], and, after spending his freshman year at the [[University of Michigan]] on a swimming scholarship, transferred to the [[United States Military Academy]], from which he graduated in 1954. Serving in the [[United States Air Force|Air Force]], Scott had received two advanced degrees from [[MIT]] in 1962 before being selected as one of the [[List of astronauts by year of selection#1963|third group of astronauts]] the following year. He flew in [[Gemini 8]] in 1966 alongside [[Neil Armstrong]] and as command module pilot of [[Apollo 9]] in 1969. Worden was born in 1932 in [[Jackson, Michigan]], and like his commander, had attended West Point (class of 1955) and served in the Air Force. Worden earned two master's degrees in engineering from Michigan in 1963. Irwin had been born in 1930 in [[Pittsburgh]], and had attended the [[United States Naval Academy]], graduating in 1951 and serving in the Air Force, receiving a master's degree from Michigan in 1957. Both Worden and Irwin were selected in the [[List of astronauts by year of selection#1966|fifth group of astronauts]] (1966), and Apollo 15 would be their only spaceflight.<ref group=ALSJ name="crew information">{{cite web |url=https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.crew.html |title=Apollo 15 crew information |year=1996 |editor-last=Jones |editor-first=Eric M. |work=Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Journal |publisher=NASA |access-date=September 4, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161128111924/http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.crew.html |archive-date=November 28, 2016 |url-status=live |df=mdy-all }}</ref> All three future astronauts had attended Michigan, and two had taken degrees from there; it had been the first university to offer an aeronautical engineering program.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.wkar.org/post/michigan-astronauts-apollo-15|title=The Michigan Astronauts Of Apollo 15|first=Scott|last=Pohl|website=www.wkar.org|date=July 25, 2019}}</ref>

[[File:Ap15-s71-23768.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Two men with large backpacks stand amid a desert landscape|[[Richard F. Gordon Jr.|Gordon]] (right) and [[Harrison H. Schmitt|Schmitt]] during geology training]]
The backup crew was [[Richard F. Gordon Jr.]] as commander, [[Vance D. Brand]] as command module pilot and [[Harrison Schmitt|Harrison H. Schmitt]] as Lunar Module pilot.<ref name="smiths" /> By the usual rotation of crews, the three would most likely have flown [[Canceled Apollo missions|Apollo 18]], which was canceled.{{sfn|Chaikin|p=401}} Brand flew later on the [[Apollo–Soyuz Test Project]] and on [[STS-5]], the first operational [[Space Shuttle]] mission.{{sfn|Slayton|loc=5217, 5689}} With NASA under intense pressure to send a professional scientist to the Moon, Schmitt, a geologist, was selected as LMP of [[Apollo 17]] instead of [[Joe Engle]].{{sfn|Chaikin|pp=449–450}}
Apollo 15's support crew consisted of astronauts [[Joseph P. Allen]], [[Robert A. Parker]] and [[Karl Gordon Henize|Karl G. Henize]].{{sfn|Orloff & Harland|p=426}} All three were scientist-astronauts, [[List of astronauts by selection#1967|selected in 1967]], as the prime crew felt they needed more assistance with the science than with the piloting. None of the support crew would fly during the Apollo program, waiting until the Space Shuttle program to go into space.{{sfn|Worden|loc=2433}}<!-- Chapter 7, paragraph "We didn't need pilots" -->