Just rewatched "the Right Stuff". A few questions for those who were around at the time:
1.) The whole Gus Grissom thing, with the exploding hatch; the movie makes it seems like he panicked and blew the hatch. I find that hard to believe since he was the first guy to fly in space twice. If he was unreliable, why would they have kept him in the program? My question is: at the time, was the general populous looking at Grissom with doubts as to his bravery and competence? Did everyone think he blew the hatch out of panic? Was it something people debated?
Or is it just for the movie! (the book, to be fair, did go into it)
I was too young to remember any controversy over that, but I seem to remember reading an investigation cleared Gus of blowing the hatch.
2.) I never put two and two together: Johnson was the head of the space program, and so that's why the space center is in Houston? (duh!). I always thought it had been picked for geographical significance, ha! Turns out it's just because Johnson was a Texan! Other than that, is there any reason to put it in Houston? (not that there's anything wrong with that, I was just wondering if there was also a scientific reason.)
It wasn't just LBJ. Houston Congressman Albert Thomas was Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and fellow Texan Sam Rayburn was Speaker of The House. That probably had something to do with it.
😉
3.) The whole thing with John Glenn almost frying up in re-entry; was that something that was known to the general populace at the time, watching? Was everyone holding their breath to see if he would make it? Or, even without knowing about frying up in re-entry, people were holding their breath because it was such a new phenomenon, going up into space.
Again, I was pretty young then but I seem to remember the public being aware of it. Re-entry was always a bit of a nail biter because radio communications were lost for several minutes.
4.) Regarding the Russians, I remember someone telling me that the Russians definitely lost people in their early tests and missions, but it's not known how many. Some of you guys obviously know more about the subject than me, I was wondering if one of you could speak to that. (before I go investigate it myself!).
I remember hearing the rumors about some Soviets dying back then. Don't know anything about it.
5.) Am I right in concluding that the other astronauts were overshadowed by Glenn? By the time Cooper went up, were people getting more blase about it? Or was each mission closely followed? Did you have any "favorites" among them?
Yeah, I would say they were. But Glenn resigned in 1964 because NASA wouldn't let him go up again and he pretty much disappeared from public life until he got into politics. That's how I remember it anyway.
To answer the second part of your question, every mission was a big event then. Just about everybody knew the astronauts faces and names. I guess you had to live through it to understand how big it was. Every teacher I had would roll a TV into the classroom so we could follow what was going on.
6.) Could you contrast the feelings you had with the original Mercury missions to the Apollo moon landing?
7.) After little more than a decade, everything fizzled out for the space program, was that suprising to you? Were you just assuming that after the moon, there would be more missions and further exploration of space? What stopped it? Was it the cost of Vietnam, or just the general economy of the 70s?
Hard to compare the Mercury and Apollo programs for me, again due to age. I remember a lot more about the Gemini and Apollo programs. On June 3 1965 Ed White became the first American to walk in space during the Gemini 4 mission. I'll never forget watching that. And sadly, Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chafee were the first American astronauts to die when their command module was swept by a flash fire January 27 1967.
The Moon landings. Well, Apollo 11 is etched in my memory of course, like it must be for everyone that watched it happen. But by the last landing, December 1972 I think, interest was waning as I remember it. Almost like it was routine by then.
Some people may not know that the space shuttle program was approved by Nixon in 1972, and that's what NASA was focused on.
8.) Have I asked too many questions?
Thanks in advance!
We can never ask too many questions.
🙂
