Conference lgp30::christian-perspective

287.0. "Jim Irwin, Apollo 15 Astronaut..." by NYTP07::LAM (Q ��Ktl��) Tue Aug 13 1991 18:12

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                             -< Space Exploration >-
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Note 459.61                       Apollo Trivia                         61 of 61
MTWAIN::KLAES "All the Universe, or nothing!"       150 lines  11-AUG-1991 15:44
                     -< James Irwin, APOLLO 15 astronaut >-
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Article         1603
From: [email protected]
Newsgroups: clari.tw.space,clari.news.aviation,clari.news.religion
Subject: Moonwalker James Benson Irwin dead at 61
Date: 9 Aug 91 20:49:45 GMT 
 
	GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. (UPI) -- Former astronaut James Benson
Irwin, who felt ``God's presence'' while walking on the Moon in 1971
and became an ordained Baptist minister and seeker of Noah's Ark after
leaving NASA, has died of a heart attack, officials said Friday.  He
was 61. 

	Irwin, who had suffered several cardiac arrests in recent
years, died at 5:50 MDT Thursday at Valley View Hospital, the High
Flight Foundation, which he founded to spread the Word of God, said. 

	Irwin -- who died almost exactly 20 years to the day after his
return from the Moon -- had been on a mountain bike ride near Marble,
Colorado, when he was stricken, the foundation said. 

	Irwin is the only one of 12 men who walked on the Moon to pass away.

	``I think it's a tragedy.  He was a good person, he was a good
man,'' his Apollo 15 crewmate, Alfred Worden, said.  ``He was a
good-natured person with a lot of physical problems.  Jim's (heart)
just couldn't keep up with the rest of him.'' 

	Alan Bean, who walked on the Moon in 1969, said: ``He was
religious, but not so much until he went to the Moon.  When he got
back, he said that he felt God's presence on the Moon and that as a
result of this, he felt he should leave the space program and witness
these feelings throughout the world. 

	``He felt people looked up to him as a role model and since he
felt religion was so important, it was important for him to share his
beliefs.'' 

	Legendary flight controller Christopher Kraft said Irwin
``probably had a greater impact on both the young and the old in the
world since his (space) travels because of his strong beliefs in God
and his religion.'' 

	``I think he certainly gave his whole life to that and had a
great deal of influence on more people, perhaps, than as an astronaut,'' 
Kraft said. 

	Irwin, Worden, and David Scott went into space in an Apollo 15
capsule, named Endeavor, on July 26, 1971.  Irwin's only spaceflight
lasted 12 days, 7 hours 11 minutes and 53 seconds. 

	Worden orbited overhead while lunar module pilot Scott took
the Apollo Falcon lander through a steep 26-degree descent over the
Appenine Mountains on the Moon to make a pinpoint touchdown near the
rim of Hadley Rille, a giant canyon snaking across the lunar highlands. 

	Irwin and Scott spent three days and 56 minutes on the Moon's
surface and Irwin completed three Moon walks totaling 17 hours and 11
minutes. 

	``The thing that really moved me was I felt God's presence
while I was on the Moon,'' Irwin said in an interview after the
flight. ``It just seemed that God was so close.'' 

	Irwin and Scott also drove about the Moon's surface in the
first lunar roving vehicle, an electric go-cart-like machine that
allowed them to cover wide areas to collect a diverse assortment of
lunar rocks and samples. 

	Falcon's liftoff from the Moon was televised by a camera
mounted on the rover, thrilling millions of spectators on Earth. 

	Kraft said Irwin suffered an irregular heart beat during his
lunar mission, a harbinger of problems to come later. 

	``When he got back into the spacecraft after he'd been on the
surface .... he was feeling very, very weak,'' Kraft said. ``He
immediately attached himself to the telemetry so we could look at his
EKG.  I happened to be standing next to (flight surgeon) Chuck Berry
when it happened, and here is this double heartbeat.  I was shocked by
looking at it. 

	``I remember Berry saying if he was on the Earth, he'd be in
intensive care immediately.  But he said where he is, in a pure oxygen
environment at zero gravity, he couldn't be in a better place.'' 

	Apollo 15 flight director Eugene Kranz, now a top manager at
the Johnson Space Center, said Irwin was profoundly affected by his
trip to the Moon. 

	``I did have a strong feeling...that something had changed
him and changed him in a dramatic fashion,'' Kranz said. ``I think he
was visibly and profoundly impressed, shaken.  During the...post-mission 
party it struck then that he was much more reserved, more introspective, 
than I had known him before.'' 

	After the flight, Irwin said he would use his fame as an
astronaut as a witness for God and consult with evangelist Billy
Graham and Baptist leaders on his role. 

	``The result of making that flight was a change in my life,''
he said. ``We were exposed to so much, the thrill of going to the
Moon, seeing the beauty of the Universe. 

	``We viewed the Earth as a very fragile, beautiful planet and
saw the need to protect it, the need for all men to work together to
protect this beautiful thing we have here. 

	``The only way I see for man to effectively work together is
if they all share a common faith or belief.'' 

	During the flight back to Earth, Worden completed a spacewalk,
the first ever conducted outside of Earth orbit.  In another first, the
Apollo 15 crew launched an 80-pound satellite to study the Moon's magnetic 
field, thus becoming the first space crew to launch a satellite. 

	The flight's only anxious moment came at splashdown when one
of the Apollo capsule's three main parachutes failed to open, but the
astronauts were unhurt by their jarring landing. 

	After the mission, NASA reprimanded Irwin and his crewmates
for poor judgment for taking souvenir stamped envelopes to the Moon
and offering them for sale when they returned. 

	``I think it is a tragedy that people would use this very
unfortunate incident to destroy an image of people who have dedicated
their lives to the exploration of space,'' Irwin said after resigning
from NASA in 1972. 

	Born in Pittsburgh on March 17, 1930, Irwin graduated from
East High School in Salt Lake City and earned a degree from the Naval
Academy in 1951.  He earned a master's degree in aeronautical
engineering and instrumentation engineering from the University of
Michigan in 1957. 

	Irwin founded High Flight after his return to Earth to spread
the word of God.  He became an ordained Baptist minister in 1985. 

	Since 1982, Irwin has made annual expeditions to Turkey's
Mount Ararat in search of Noah's Ark. 

	Irwin was an avid handball, racquetball, and squash player.

	He had five children, four by his marriage to the former Mary
Ellen Monroe of Corvalis, Ore.: Joy, 31; Jill, 30; James B., 28; and
Jan, 26.  He had another child by a second marriage. 

	A memorial service was scheduled for Tuesday at the Radiant
Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Irwin will be buried at the
Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on August 15. 

    Thanks for sharing the article.  I just saw Irwin in a television
    interview a couple of weeks ago and was moved by his sincerity and
    dedication. 
    
    I'll miss him though I never knew him.
    
    To God be the glory!
    
    Lisa

    	His funeral was today and was apparently well attended.
    He was given a military ceremony with full honors.
    More then 300 cars were in the funeral procession.  There were
    six former astronauts as pall bearers.  He will be permanently
    interned? (buried) in Arlington Nat'l Cemetery.

>     interned? (buried) in Arlington Nat'l Cemetery.

        More likely interred.

        Bob

    
    eye new that
    
    	_ed-

    I deleted 41.69, as it appeared to be a duplicate of 287.0.
    
    Richard Jones-Christie
    Co-moderator/CHRISTIAN-PERSPECTIVE