Author Topic: Why no second Apollo flights for Anders and McDivitt  (Read 4201 times)

Offline Dr_Orpheus

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Why no second Apollo flights for Anders and McDivitt
« on: July 31, 2015, 01:17:13 PM »
Insubordination on Apollo 7 got Cunningham and Eisele kicked off the flight roster, and Schweickart's nausea killed his chances of another mission.   I've never heard why Anders or McDivitt never got additional mission assignments.   Does anyone know?

Offline Zakalwe

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Re: Why no second Apollo flights for Anders and McDivitt
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2015, 01:33:19 PM »
Cernan talks about Bill Anders in his autobiography.
He says that Anders didn't want to be a CMP again "Anders felt that he had done enough lunar orbiting on Apollo 8" so he turned down the chance to be CMP on A13. No-one knew the crew rotation or how many flights would be after A13 so he figured that his chances of getting onto a back-up crew, and then a Moon landing three missions later were pretty slim. Deke asked him to help out in Washington, which Anders reluctantly took up on the proviso that he would retain his flight status. Once he got into Washington his career was on a different track.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2015, 01:36:25 PM by Zakalwe »
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Offline Zakalwe

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Re: Why no second Apollo flights for Anders and McDivitt
« Reply #2 on: July 31, 2015, 01:35:33 PM »
Jim McDivitt was promoted into managing the Apollo Flight Office, so that wold have taken him out of the rotation (again from Cernan's autobiography- page 232)
"The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' " - Isaac Asimov

Offline Dr_Orpheus

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Re: Why no second Apollo flights for Anders and McDivitt
« Reply #3 on: July 31, 2015, 06:09:40 PM »
Going through the long training hours for two prime crew assignments with little chance of actually landing on the moon would be frustrating especially when Shepard was given a command assignment (originally on A13 if I'm not mistaken) despite his minimal space flight experience.   You'd think Deke could have at least offered Anders a spot as an LM pilot.  I guess McDivitt wasn't interested in any more Apollo flights.
« Last Edit: July 31, 2015, 06:11:14 PM by Dr_Orpheus »

Offline bknight

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Re: Why no second Apollo flights for Anders and McDivitt
« Reply #4 on: July 31, 2015, 07:54:28 PM »
Going through the long training hours for two prime crew assignments with little chance of actually landing on the moon would be frustrating especially when Shepard was given a command assignment (originally on A13 if I'm not mistaken) despite his minimal space flight experience.   You'd think Deke could have at least offered Anders a spot as an LM pilot.  I guess McDivitt wasn't interested in any more Apollo flights.
Slayton had indicated that he wanted at least one of the original Mercury 7 to go to the moon.  Cooper, Carpenter and Schirra were in the dog house, Glenn was in orbit in the Senate, Grissom was dead and he still had the heart problem.  That left Shepard to command the A14, as NASA wanted to give him more time to train, since he hadn't been on the regular rotation with his ear problem.
McDivitt had already had a command and probably guessed that he would not have another command, but that is my surmise as I didn't know him.
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Offline Dr_Orpheus

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Re: Why no second Apollo flights for Anders and McDivitt
« Reply #5 on: July 31, 2015, 08:11:03 PM »
Maybe Burns the astronaut medium can ask Slayton's ghost the reason for some of the crew assignments. ;D

Offline bknight

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Re: Why no second Apollo flights for Anders and McDivitt
« Reply #6 on: August 01, 2015, 01:44:51 PM »
Maybe Burns the astronaut medium can ask Slayton's ghost the reason for some of the crew assignments. ;D

lol, but will it be a verifiable source?   :-X
Truth needs no defense.  Nobody can take those footsteps I made on the surface of the moon away from me.
Eugene Cernan