Apollo Discussions > The Reality of Apollo

Quiz!

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Glom:
I'll start off with an easy one.

Which astronauts went to the Moon twice?

Echnaton:
Cernan Lovell Young

I've always wondered why Stafford didn't get a moon landing mission?

ka9q:

--- Quote from: Echnaton on March 02, 2012, 02:41:10 PM ---Cernan Lovell Young
--- End quote ---
Of course, none landed twice. Only Cernan and Young orbited on two missions; Lovell only orbited on one since Apollo 13 was a lunar fly-by.

--- Quote ---I've always wondered why Stafford didn't get a moon landing mission?
--- End quote ---
Good question. Probably a personal choice. I think he's the highest-ranked military US astronaut, so perhaps military promotions meant more to him than additional flights. He certainly wasn't too old for a lunar flight; he's the same age as Pete Conrad and John Young, and while he's older than Gene Cernan and Dave Scott he's younger than Jim Lovell. Alan Shepard, 7 years older than Stafford and Young, was criticized for being too old for his lunar flight but Apollo 14 was an unusually strenuous lunar mission (long EVA hikes without a rover).

Stafford seems to have gone into NASA management as of 1971, presumably removing him from active flight consideration for the near term. But of all the US astronauts of that era he seems to have had the strongest personal interest in the Soviet manned space program, so that made him the natural to come out of retirement and command ASTP in 1975.  I can't imagine the physical training for ASTP was anything like that for an Apollo lunar mission or even Skylab. I'm sure ASTP was mostly about learning the Russian language and an entirely different set of pilots, hardware, procedures, cultures and institutional politics. I bet he spent far more time on international travel than any other US astronaut of his time.

Still, considering his very quick and cool-headed reaction to the N2O4 emergency during the ASTP entry, he was as capable an Apollo commander as anyone. He quite likely saved his crew's lives by getting them onto emergency O2 under extremely difficult conditions. One (Brand) had already passed out, and without help he could well have died.

Rob260259:
Here's another one:
One of the FIDO flight controllers 'invented' the nickname "Captain REFSMMAT". What was his name? And what was the name of the 'enemy' of the Captain?

Chew:

--- Quote from: Echnaton on March 02, 2012, 02:41:10 PM ---I've always wondered why Stafford didn't get a moon landing mission?

--- End quote ---

I thought he was offered one but turned it down so he could concentrate on ASTP.

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