When you create an objective list of the greatest Americans from the post war until the year 2000, nearly ALL are our astronauts! Not our sports stars, absolutely NOT our politicians, but these men that progressed humanity for all mankind!
Incredible interview. Fun fact: On Apollo 8 Frank Borman got sick and had a bowl movement. It escaped from the bags they used. So while the first time humanity entered the gravitational influence of another celestial body there were shit particles floating around everywhere! And if you read the Apollo Flight Journals which include a full transcript of the mission, not just what they were transmitting to Mission Control, it was God awful!
Rest In Peace Bill. You died doing what you loved all your life, flying. Bill, you were part of the 3-man crew who were the first to leave the tight binds of Earth. And boldly go where no man has ever gone before. And put the binds of earth behind you. That takes a very special man for that job. You're in God's hands now Bill. I'll continue to enjoy every video you were part of.
Talking about Deke Slayton's heart condition; an Atrial Fibrilation, a type of arrithmya, Alan is right: it is an episodic diseasa that usually begins by short episodes interspersed with normal rythm. It is usually secondary to another heart disease, as a valvule failure or a long-term hypertensive disease. However in the case of Deke, it was a primary Atrial Fibrilation; that is, there was no underlying heart disease. That's not frequent, but seldom happens and generally corresponds to a congenital anomalous disposition of the pacemarker tissues in the heart. But, the problem is that being a switch-on switch-off disease; that is, only God knows when the abnormal rythm begins and when it will finish, sometimes it uses to form clots inside the atrium while it fibrilates and then, when rythm becomes normal, those clots are launched by the already normal atrium contraction via left ventriculum and aorta, anywhere in the body, however with an special preference to carothyds and the brain... and THAT is maybe the real reason why Doctors decided to ground Deke. Today it is mandatory the use of anticoagulants in people who suffers Atrial Fibrilation, just to prevent the installation of these clots inside Left Atrium and their consequences. The use of an anticoagulant in an Astronaut may be an inherent danger too, because the subtle risk of an hemorrage during a flight, however, with the years Deke proved to never show signs of repeated Atrial Fibrilation again and after years of grounding, he was finally allowed to participate in the trio of Astronauts who flew the joint mission with the Russians, back in 1975.
Cooper know why he lost his place in Apollo. When Alan Shepard regained flight status, Deke Slayton put Shepard back on top of the allocation rota, pushing everyone back. Cooper had already upset NASA administrators in a number of ways and he seems to have chosen the Shepard issue as the hill to die on. On another point, not all astronauts were really interested in space exploration. Astronauts such as Frank Borman, just felt it was about beating Russia to the moon, once done that bit of the Cold War was won. Cooper however was interested, he spent time with Werner Von Braun where they discussed possible Mars missions. Cooper felt as the youngest of the Mercury Astronauts he would still be young enough (55) to be chosen as a commander for a Mars mission. Seems ridiculous today but Von Braun was proposing a 1982 mission using clusters of Rover (NERVA) nuclear rocket stages for LEO to Mars stage, until Nixon killed the funding. It was interesting at 71 he still held the dream!
Cooper know why he lost his place in Apollo. When Alan Shepard regained flight status, Deke Slayton put Shepard back on top of the allocation rota, pushing everyone back. Cooper had already had upset NASA administrators and seems to have chosen the Shepard issue as the hill to die on. On another interesting point not all astronauts were really interested in space exploration. Astronauts Frank Borman, jut felt it was about beating Russia to the moon, once done that bit of the Cold War was won. Cooper was interested, he spent time with Werner Von Brown
“On the moon, it’s difficult to judge distance as there are no telegraph poles up there … yet!” Efficiency of his speech, information, humour and aspiration in a single sentence, classic.
Met John breafly at dedication of Gus's memorial dedication at springmill st Park vary nice guy was glad to see he got a chance to land on moon after his great apollo 10 flight so close about able to reach out and touch it his flight with crippen on st 1 ground breaking couldn't ask for better man to comand first shuttle mission 👍
@@Emdee5632 How was anyone able to sit in those things for 14 days? I would've walked out of the thing after 14 hrs. The pain in the knees would've been unbearable for me.
There was only one mission that lasted almost 14 days, Gemini-7 (Borman and Lovell). As Conrad explains they had special suits. It wasn't that cramped, they were able to get out of their suits and get back into them - I guess experiencing microgravity might have helped. So they didn't feel their own weight. However being constantly in more or less the same position must have been uncomfortable... The last couple of days they didn't have much to do and they hated them. Back on Earth Borman and Lovell joked they might have well get married, having been so close to each other all the time. One other mission lasted about 8 days (Gemini-5) the others lasted from less than a day to about 4 days. Lasting longer than even the longest Apollo mission, Gemini-7's record wasn't broken until one of the Soyuz missions in the early 1970s. They went to extremes by attempting to go to 14 days in the Gemini. Apollo 17 lasted for about 12 and a half days, only about half of that was spent going from Earth to the moon and back, the three astronauts sitting or floating around in a roomier Apollo command module. I think 7 or 8 days in a Gemini would have been good enough...
To hear Pete Conrad mention reusable boosters in 1998 “32:30” shows how far thinking these first pioneers actually were. I hope he at least had an opportunity to speak with Elon Musk around this time.
John Young may have spoke simply but we’d all be wise to listen to him. Yeager spoke about himself mostly and achieved a single goal while Young speaks of goals and important future projects.
According to Neil’s First Man author, sources, like Frank Borman rejected Aldrin as a teammate due to his lack of social skills. Armstrong accepted him, because he had worked with Aldrin previously, and because he thought his offered replacement, Lovell, deserved his own command, after Apollo 8 as CMP.
This dude was and always was…a rockstar. Of the seven Mercury Astronauts, he was chosen the best for mission 1. Without his ear problems, he was prime crew on Apollo 1. He landed on the moon..and played golf. Legend.
Pete Conrad was my favorite astronaut . I met Neil Armstrong but I think Pete would have made a better first man. We defiantly would have gotten a more animated disruption of the first landing. He was brilliant on Apollo 12 . Watched every minute when I was a kid. After all he's been through he dies from a stupid motorcycle accident.
