Apollo 15 (July 26 - August 7, 1971) was the fourth manned lunar landing mission and marked the first of the three "J" missions designed to conduct exploration of the Moon over longer periods, greater ranges, and with more instruments for scientific data acquisition than on previous flights. David Scott and James Irwin lived on the Moon for 66 hours and 54 minutes (10 hours and 36 minutes of which were outside the Lunar Module Falcon) while Al Worden orbited the Moon inside the Command Module Endeavor.

The attached sample of lunar dust was carried back to Earth aboard the Apollo 15 mission, inside a 27 by 14 inch temporary stowage bag mounted to the left girth shelf next to Scott's couch in Endeavour. Used to stow items for the return trip from the Moon, the lining was stained with dust. After its recovery, the bag was removed from the spacecraft by engineers working for North American Rockwell.