Video: 'Al Worden's Deep Space EVA'

(Thursday, August 5, 1971, 11:40 p.m. EDT) — Apollo 15 astronaut Alfred Worden stepped into the black vacuum 196,000 miles from the earth today to become the first person ever to take a floating excursion outside his craft in interplanetary “deep space.”

Gripping handrails on the exterior of the spaceship, his legs often drifting high over his head, Worden made three trips to the rear section of the craft, the Endeavour, to retrieve film magazines and inspect scientific instruments.

Video: 'Apollo 15 CMP Al Worden Deep Space EVA'

The astronaut spent 16 minutes outside the Endeavour, working all the time, accomplishing his tasks with a speed and ease that surprised Mission Control at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. Only once did the astronaut seem to take note of his environment and the distant scenery.

When he looked back and saw one of the two other astronauts standing waist-high in the ship’s open hatch, Worden said, “You look absolutely fantastic against that moon back there. That is really a most unbelievable, remarkable thing.”

Video: 'Apollo 15 Remastered [4K]' (Aug. 5, 1971, at 1:30:28)

At the time Major Worden began his excursion, Apollo 15 was about 50,000 miles from the Moon, coasting toward the earth at a speed of 2,300 miles an hour. If he could see earth at the time, he never commented on it.

Apollo 15 had rocketed out of lunar orbit on Aug. 4, 1971, after completing man’s fourth landing on the Moon, and would splash down in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii on Aug. 7, 1971.