Ginny slides into Walden’s car, and as soon as she’s shut the door, he pulls out of the parking space. I’ll take you back to your car, he says, I still got stuff to do.
But you’ll come to the hotel later?
Sure, I said so, didn’t I? He looks across at her. How long are you planning on staying, hon?
She ignores his gaze and stares out of the passenger window at the passing scenery, which appears no more interesting at ground level than it did 526 feet up in the air. I don’t know, she replies. A couple of days, I suppose.
When you’ve seen everything at the Cape, there’s the beach, Walden suggests.
Ginny is not a beach person, and spending hours lying on hot sand beneath the Florida sun, in a bikini or a one-piece, that’s not something she’s ever considered a worthwhile pastime. She came to Cocoa Beach to see more of the space program—and her husband of course—not to sunbathe.
Maybe, Ginny tells her husband.
Walden Jefferson “Wal” Eckhardt (born March 8, 1932) is a retired United States Air Force brigadier general and a former NASA astronaut. As the lunar module pilot for Apollo 15 in 1971, he became the eighth person to walk on the Moon.
Early life and education
Eckhardt was born in Grand Junction, Colorado, where he graduated from Central High School in 1950. After a year spent working at Walker Field Airport, where he earned his pilot’s licence, he studied for and received a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautical Engineering at San Diego State University in 1955.
Military career
Eckhardt joined the United States Air Force on graduation from San Diego State University. After a year at flying school, he was sent to George Air Force Base, California, for advanced training on the North American F-86 Sabre fighter jet, before being assigned in 1959 to the 415th Interceptor Squadron stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany. In 1962, he was transferred to the Experimental Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base, California. On graduation, he remained at Edwards as an instructor before attending the Aerospace Research Pilot School in 1962. After graduating from ARPS, he spent a year as an instructor and was then assigned to the Fighter Test Group.
NASA career
In April 1966, Eckhardt was one of the nineteen selected for NASA’s fifth group of astronauts. In 1968, he served as a member of the support crew for Apollo 10, the first mission to carry the full Apollo stack to the Moon and the dry run for the first manned Moon landing. He then served as backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 12, the second Moon landing mission, commanded by Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad.
Apollo 15
Between July 26 and August 7, 1971 — as the Apollo 15 Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) — Eckhardt logged 295 hours and 11 minutes in
space. His extra-vehicular activity (EVA) on the Moon’s surface
amounted to 18 hours and 35 minutes of the mission time (an additional 33 minutes was used to do a stand-up EVA by opening the LM’s docking hatch to survey the surroundings and take photographs). Eckhardt and David Scott’s mission was more science-based than previous missions, which meant that they received intensive geological training to meet the demanding nature of the J-Mission profile. This extra training is credited with allowing them to make one of the most important discoveries of the Apollo era, the Genesis Rock.
Apollo 15 landed in the Moon's Hadley-Apennine region, noted for its mountains and rilles. As a J-Mission, they would spend more time on the moon than previous missions, to allow for three EVAs. As well, Eckhardt was the first automobile passenger on the Moon as Scott drove the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) carried along for this mission in the Lunar Module (LM) Falcon's Descent Stage. Scott and Eckhardt’s stay on the Moon was just under three days at 66 hours and 54 minutes.
Post-NASA career
After Apollo 15, Eckhardt remained with NASA after being assigned to the Skylab program. However, once the planned fifth Skylab mission was cancelled Eckhardt left NASA, and retired from the United States Air Force, on September 1, 1975. He held a number of positions with aerospace companies before retiring in 1992.
Personal life
Eckhardt married his wife, Virginia, shortly after she graduated from San Diego State University in 1958. They have one daughter, Suzy, born 1973. The pair divorced in 1979.
He was a member of the Air Force Association and the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
• Air Force Distinguished Service Medal
• Air Force Commendation Medal
• NASA Distinguished Service Medal
• Command Pilot Astronaut Wings
• Robert J Collier Trophy, 1971
• Haley Astronautics Award, 1972
He was also awarded Belgium’s Order of Leopold in 1971, and an Honorary Doctorate in Aeronautical Engineering from San Diego State University in 1971.
He was inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1983, and the U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame on October 4, 1997.
• Flight of the Falcon (with Virginia G. Eckhardt, 1983)
Categories: American astronauts | 1971 in spaceflight | American aviators | American test pilots | Apollo 15 | People who have walked on the Moon | United States Air Force officers | U.S Air Force Test Pilot School alumni
Chapter 9
Lunar Module Descent
The next day, Ginny is taken round the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building, she sees the altitude chambers in which they test if the command modules and lunar modules can survive the rigours of space. She can’t decide if the chambers resemble giant ovens or giant diving bells but perhaps, she decides, it’s because their function is something of both. Then, on the third floor, Walden hasn’t said where he’s taking her, he abruptly halts, glances at his watch and swears.
I was supposed to be somewhere, he says, I got to make a phone call. Wait here, I’ll be back in a minute, hon.
He hurries off back toward the elevators, leaving Ginny on her own in the corridor, wondering if she’s meant to stand there like a lemon until he returns. And then the doors just a little further along the corridor swing open and a woman with short brown hair, dressed in a white nurse’s uniform and white hose, comes striding toward Ginny, and frowns on seeing her and asks, Can I help you?
Ginny introduces herself but is only halfway through explaining her husband is giving her a tour of the MSOB but has just abandoned her to make a telephone call, when the nurse interrupts, and with a smile asks, He was taking you to the suiting room?
I guess, says Ginny.
Well, it’s this way, come on, I’ll take you. My name is Dee, by the way.
She leads Ginny along the corridor and through a pair of double doors into a white-walled room with several tan Naugahyde armchairs scattered about it. Each armchair faces a large white control-panel festooned with dials and valves and knobs; and between each control panel, a waist-high table stretches from the wall out into the room. Dee waves at a man in white coveralls, he’s standing at one of the tables and Ginny thinks he’s talking to someone lying on the table top before she realises it’s an empty spacesuit.
Hey, Joe, says Dee, this is Ginny, you want to give her a quick run-down of what you do in here?