The Right Stuff

"ttyymmnn" (ttyymmnn) 04/07/2016 at 15:33 • Filed to: planelopnik, planelopnik history

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The original members of the US Astronaut corps, known collectively as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . These astronauts were the first Americans to fly in space, and formed the core of the US astronaut service throughout the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

Pictured here in front of a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the astronauts are, from left to right:

Scott Carpenter: Carpenter was the second American to orbit the Earth, and the fourth American in space. After leaving NASA to participate in the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! program, Carpenter suffered an injury to his arm that grounded him from future flights.

Gordon Cooper: Cooper piloted the longest Mercury spaceflight in 1963 (34 hours), was the first American to sleep in space, and the last to be launched on a solo orbital mission. He flew as Command Pilot for !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1965, spending nearly 8 days in space.

John Glenn: Glenn was the first American to orbit the Earth in !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and is the final surviving member of the first class of astronauts. Glenn returned to space on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1998 on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! at the age of 77, becoming the oldest person to fly in space.

Gus Grissom: The second American to fly in space, Grissom was also the first to fly in space twice. Grissom was killed during a ground test of !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! when a fire broke out in the Command Module. The fire also took the life of astronauts !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! and !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! .

Wally Shirra: In 1962, Shirra became the fifth American into space when he orbited the Earth six times and, as part of the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , Shirra achieved the first rendezvous in space when his !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! spacecraft matched orbit with !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . In 1968, he commanded !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and was the first person to fly as part of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, spending just over 295 hours in space.

Alan Shepard: Shepard has the distinction of being the first American to go to space when he flew a suborbital mission on !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and he became the oldest astronaut (at the time) when he commanded the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! mission, piloting the lunar lander Antares to the most accurate landing of all the Apollo missions. Following a diagnosis of Ménière’s disease that ended his astronaut career, Shepard served as the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! until 1969. He was promoted to the rank of rear admiral in the US Navy, the first astronaut to reach that rank, and he retired from the US Navy and NASA in 1974.

Deke Slayton : Chosen as one of the original Mercury 7, Slayton was grounded in 1962 due to a heart condition. Slayton served as the first Chief of the Astronaut Office and served as the Director of Flight Crew Operations from 1963-1972. Though he never flew in space during the Mercury project, Slayton was later medically cleared to fly, and served as the docking module pilot on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! in 1975, in which a US spacecraft docked in space with a Russian spacecraft, becoming the oldest astronaut at the time to fly in space at age 51. It was also the last of the Apollo missions.

NASA photos

For Sweden > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 15:35

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Alan Shepard looks way too happy to be standing next to an Air Force plane.

ttyymmnn > For Sweden 04/07/2016 at 15:37

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He is an Aviator, after all, not just a pilot.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 15:43

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IT’s all so sexist. It’s so obvious that they were selected for their hair .

JR1 > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 15:44

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Every single one of them are American heroes

Brian, The Life of > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 16:03

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I don’t know how many times I’ve seen it but The Right Stuff is still the only movie that has me in goosebumps from start to finish.

ttyymmnn > Brian, The Life of 04/07/2016 at 16:04

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I am somewhat ashamed to say that I have never seen the film.

Brian, The Life of > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 16:06

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Oh sweet Jeebus dude, you of all people must rectify that nonsense ASAP.

ttyymmnn > Brian, The Life of 04/07/2016 at 16:09

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I know.

Steve in Manhattan > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 16:24

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Nothing more says badass to me:

phenotyp > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 16:26

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It’s really, really good. Like, not just good for the time. Still great.

Have you watched the Tom Hanks From the Earth to the Moon series?

ttyymmnn > Steve in Manhattan 04/07/2016 at 16:31

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And he flew it until he simply couldn’t fly it any more. It’s in their blood. Even as Columbia was breaking up over Texas, Shutle Pilot William McCool was starting the procedure to fly the Shuttle home. He never gave up, but sadly, he couldn’t punch out. It’s the ability to keep a level head under such enormous pressure that truly separates people like these from the rest of us.

ttyymmnn > phenotyp 04/07/2016 at 16:33

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Nope. I saw Apollo 13 , though.... I guess I generally find dramatized history to be a bit, well, dramatic, and prefer the cold hard facts. But TRS is definitely on my list of films that I have to make time for. I just need to stop writing for a while.....

phenotyp > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 16:37

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The series was actually pretty great. Not the overtly-dramatic type like Apollo 13 (though Hanks’ opening monologues were kind of annoying). A lot of great actors, and the episode about designing the LM was fantastic.

Steve in Manhattan > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 16:56

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That’s why I want that Vietnam-era pilot flying my commercial jet - a level head, gray hair, and that ability to determine whether something is worth worrying about. Sully, if he hadn’t retired.

Steve in Manhattan > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 16:57

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You will hear one line in the movie that I will give you: “Sperm.” That is all you need to know.

415s30 W123TSXWaggoIIIIIIo ( •_•))°) > ttyymmnn 04/07/2016 at 18:43

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Their Germans are better than our Germans!

ranwhenparked > Steve in Manhattan 04/07/2016 at 19:23

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Of course, the mandatory retirement age means that the most experienced and highest skilled pilots are forced to stop being pilots. In the US, at least, a lot of them do wind up taking new jobs with foreign airlines.

Steve in Manhattan > ranwhenparked 04/07/2016 at 19:51

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Most recent flight was on ANA a couple weeks ago - the captain was greying Japanese guy who, in his early sixties, was qualified in my opinion to get me home. And he did.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > ttyymmnn 04/08/2016 at 13:22

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Good stuff once again.

“Shepard has the distention ...”

ttyymmnn > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 04/08/2016 at 13:43

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Dammit. Bloody autocorrect. I don't know how many times I proofed this.

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > ttyymmnn 04/08/2016 at 13:58

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It happens, just sort of jumped out at me. It’s easier when you’re reading someone else’s work since you read the words, and not what you expect to see since you just wrote it.

ttyymmnn > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 04/08/2016 at 14:33

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I have heard that one way to help proof you own work is to change the font. That way your eyes have to work a little harder to see what you wrote. Thanks for pointing that out. Typos are maddening to me.