41–50 of 161 posts
RIP. I have to wonder, these first missions, did the astronauts have any assurance they would make it back to earth? What was it like to say goodbye to family, not knowing if you would return or not. Am I way off here? Was this mission uncertain or did NASA have reasonable assurances?
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Thats a good question. I would be curious what they really felt the odds were at that point in time. There definitely had to be uncertainty, but he was willing to take those risks, and I think that makes him all the braver.
The actual death rate among astronauts flying on the Space Shuttle was ~4%. Any fair assessment would have put the odds of death on a pre-shuttle flight to be at least that.
thanks for spending time with us.
rest in peace.
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You've got to read The Right Stuff[1], it's fantastic. Tom Wolfe paints the ethos of the era perfectly, and if you have any interest in this period, early NASA, or the guys themselves it's a must-read. I'd also recommend Chuck Yeager's autobiography[2] as another fantastic read that gives you a feel for what life was like for elite test pilots. 1: https://smile.amazon.com/Right-Stuff-Tom-Wolfe/dp/0312427565... 2: htt…
The other classic (and definitely an HN-appropriate book) is "Failure Is Not an Option," which gives an awesome look at the engineering and management challenges they faced from Mercury to Apollo. https://smile.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-Control/...
"No, when bad things happened, we just calmly laid out all the options, and failure was not one of them. We never panicked, and we never gave up on finding a solution."
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_Kranz#.22Failure_is_not_a...
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You've got to read The Right Stuff[1], it's fantastic. Tom Wolfe paints the ethos of the era perfectly, and if you have any interest in this period, early NASA, or the guys themselves it's a must-read. I'd also recommend Chuck Yeager's autobiography[2] as another fantastic read that gives you a feel for what life was like for elite test pilots. 1: https://smile.amazon.com/Right-Stuff-Tom-Wolfe/dp/0312427565... 2: htt…
The other classic (and definitely an HN-appropriate book) is "Failure Is Not an Option," which gives an awesome look at the engineering and management challenges they faced from Mercury to Apollo. https://smile.amazon.com/Failure-Not-Option-Mission-Control/...
https://www.amazon.com/Flight-My-Life-Mission-Control/dp/052...
John Glenn was one of my boyhood heroes. I remember as a young boy listening to reports of him taking off and making those three orbits of the earth. My uncle gave me a crystal radio shaped like Glenn's Friendship 7 capsule that ignited a fierce passion into radio that led to a ham radio license and a lifelong interest in science. It was a time in America when the future seemed endless, anything was possible. A lot h…
Would you mind talking about your passion for radio? It's not something I've really thought about (beyond a general, taking-it-for-granted "hey this is handy, I'm glad we have this in our repertoire of technology"), so I'd love to hear about your love.
An often passed around marine legend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF5OBBhdTJ4 -- John Glenn, John Glenn, first American to orbit space. Was a senator from the state of Ohio, oldest man to go back up to space because he was a PT god. Before all of that he was a fucking Marine. An airwinger though. A pilot. John Glenn, 1974 ran for senate against a politician named Howard Metzenbaum. Howard Metzenbaum was a sorry m…
I think he deserves a black bar if anyone does.
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Would you mind talking about your passion for radio? It's not something I've really thought about (beyond a general, taking-it-for-granted "hey this is handy, I'm glad we have this in our repertoire of technology"), so I'd love to hear about your love.
For me, the best thing about ham radio are the connections you make with people - in that ham radio enthusiasts are self selected. They seem to be an eclectic bunch of resourceful, witty, kind, and clever people.
He was great in one episode of Frasier.
(Also, all episodes of Frasier are great...)