Space Tea

sklogw:

Apollo 15 spent one final day in lunar orbit before Trans-Earth Injection (TEI), the SPS burn that would put them on a trajectory back to Earth. This day was spent mainly on the same tasks that had occupied Worden during the past four days.

Mission Control decided to make many changes to the flight plan. The Laser Altimeter failed and was declared a lost cause. The crew were asked to use a 250 mm telephoto lens instead of an 80 mm lens on the Hasselblad. They are also instructed to take as many photographs as they liked. There was no point in them returning to Earth carrying unexposed film.

Among their photographic targets were the terminator region, where the Sun would appear to be either rising or setting for an observer on the ground. These photographs were extremely useful as they showed surface features in strong relief. Now, with three persons on board, the crew were able to acquire many more handheld photographs, with one person always available to run the SIM and receive flight plan updates from Mission Control. The crew were also instructed to just turn on the Panoramic Camera and let it run now that all its primary targets had been imaged.

Credit: NASA