In 1971, during the U.S. Apollo 15 space mission, James Irwin (1930-1991) became the eighth person to walk on the moon. During the first-ever use of the lunar roving vehicle, or "moon buggy," he and mission commander David Scott found a four-billion-year-old rock. Irwin experienced the lunar mission as a religious awakening and later founded an evangelical Christian religious organization.

James Irwin was born and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father worked as a steamfitter at the Carnegie Museums, running the power plant. "Some of my earliest memories are of waiting for Dad in this tremendous place," Irwin wrote in his autobiography To Rule the Night. His lifelong fascination with flying machines began before second grade when a neighbor gave him a model plane. His interest grew when his father would take him to a nearby airport to watch planes take off and land.

When Irwin was eleven...