Irwin, James Benson (1930-1991), a United States astronaut, piloted the lunar module Falcon on the Apollo 15 mission. In July 1971, this mission made the fourth astronaut landing on the moon.
Irwin and astronaut David R. Scott spent nearly 67 hours on the moon. Their explorations featured the first use of a vehicle called the lunar roving vehicle or lunar rover. Irwin and Scott made three trips in the lunar rover in the area of the Hadley Rille. They also assembled an automatic scientific station to transmit information back to Earth. The third crew member, Alfred M. Worden, remained in lunar orbit.
Irwin was born on March 17, 1930, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After graduating from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1951, he entered the Air Force. In 1957, Irwin earned master’s degrees in aeronautical engineering and instrumentation engineering at the University of Michigan. He graduated from the Air Force Experimental Test Pilot School in 1961 and from the Aerospace Research Pilot School in 1963. Irwin served as an astronaut from 1966 to 1972, when he resigned. He became a member of an evangelistic group called High Flight. He died on Aug. 8, 1991.
