Apollo 15 went unused, due to the explosion that damaged the Apollo 13 spacecraft. Apollo 14's CMP, Stu Roosa, was enthusiastic about geology, but the mission commander, Alan Shepard, less so. Scott, once assigned as Apollo 15 commander, was determined that his crew bring back the maximum amount of scientific data possible, and met with Silver in April 1970 to begin planning the geological training. The assignment of Schmitt as Apollo 15's backup LMP made him an insider, and allowed him to spark competition between the prime and backup crews. The cancellation of two Apollo missions in September 1970 transformed Apollo 15
Apollo Applications Program Apollo Applications Program The Apollo Applications Program (AAP) was established by NASA headquarters in 1968 to develop science-based manned space missions using hardware developed for the Apollo program. AAP was the ultimate development of a number of official and unofficial Apollo follow-on projects studied at various NASA labs. Initially the AAP office in Washington was an offshoot of the Apollo "X" bureau, also known as the "Apollo Extension Series". AES was developing technology concepts for mission proposals based on the Saturn IB and Saturn V boosters. These included a manned lunar base, an earth-orbiting space station, the so-called Grand Tour