1971: Apollo 15 (NASA)

(Monday, August 2, 1971, 1:11 p.m. ET) — Apollo 15 astronauts David R. Scott and James B. Irwin rocketed from the moon today and linked up with their mother ship, a first step home with a 230-pound cargo of lunar secrets won from that battered vault of space history. The launch followed a third and final walk on the moon where Scott paid tribute to the 16th century Italian scientist Galileo Galilei and his discovery about falling objects in gravity fields.