How Apollo mission made US astronaut the most isolated human being in history
Colonel Alfred M. Worden spent three days of his life further away from another human being than anyone else in history.
It was during his time working as command module pilot for the Apollo 15 lunar mission in 1971 that he set the record for most isolated human being.
American astronaut Al was 3,596.4 km (2,234.69 mi) away from the nearest living fellow human from 30 July to 1 August while his fellow astronauts David Scott and James Irwin were at Hadley Base exploring the surface of the moon.
During those three days, Al says he did “something like 38 revolutions of the moon by myself”.
During a Facebook Live interview in 2016, Al opened up to Guinness World Records Editor-in-Chief Craig Glenday about his record-breaking experience.
He said of the record: “I’m not sure how to explain that one. Yeah, I was pretty isolated.
“The other guys were isolated too, but I guess I was a little further out than they were.”
David Scott, Al Worden and James Irwin
He added: “I spent three days in lunar orbit while Dave Scott and James Irwin were on the surface.
“I did a lot of science, did a lot of things, became the most isolated man in history, connected a lot of science experiments, did a lot of visual observations of the moon.
“Busy, busy, busy, about 20 hours a day doing all that stuff.”
When Craig asked if he realized at the time that he was the most isolated human being, Al told him: “I was not thinking about that because there were three flights before mine where command pilots were also in lunar orbit by themselves, kind of like I was.
View of the Moon from its orbit by Apollo 15. pic.twitter.com/XoyR99OPZX
— Shining Science (@ShiningScience) December 9, 2023
“I would have to go back to look at the trajectories to see if I was further out, but obviously I was because you guys picked that up.”
We’ve done the math.
Al said while he was alone, he couldn’t even speak to his fellow astronauts or to NASA because he was on the back side of the moon.
On what it’s like to be up in space all alone, Al said: “I have to tell you, it’s the best part of the flight for me, being by myself in lunar orbit.
This photo of Earth taken from space was taken by NASA astronaut Al Worden in 1971: As the Apollo 15 mission made its return journey back to Earth from the Moon, Worden picked up a 70mm Hasselblad camera and snapped the crescent Earth, edge-lit by the glare of the Sun. pic.twitter.com/HhwLfvwFWg
— Black Hole (@konstructivizm) October 14, 2024
“I had the spacecraft all to myself, I could do whatever I wanted, but I concentrated on the science without having those guys get in my way all the time.
“It made it a lot easier for me to be able to do what I had to do.”
He joked: “And also, after living with them for four days to get there, I was quite happy to get rid of them for a while.”
Al says for that flight alone, he trained an average of 70 hours a week for three years.
That same mission also became the first lunar mission to include a lunar rover on 7 August 1971.
Al died in 2020 at the age of 88.