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[i]Ross-Nazzal: Were you following the Shuttle Program then as it was being designed and built? Abrahamson: Oh, of course, of course. In fact, we would go down to Houston [Johnson Space Center] every so often and talk to some of our friends down there. When the [MOL] program was cancelled, the feeling at Headquarters was that NASA needed help. Here we were, a group of astronauts and some other technical people, program managers and others, who NASA could draw on. So Headquarters said, "We need you all. Why don't you come down to Houston?" Of course, all of us were thrilled with that idea. The Astronaut Office, quite realistically, said, "No, a lot of our astronauts that we already have are never going to fly because the Shuttle Program is slipping and slipping and slipping, and therefore we are going to have a problem." After the Headquarters and the Astronaut Office talked about this and argued back and forth, [it was decided], okay, anybody who was 36 [years old] or had turned 36 and over couldn't come. If you were 35 or under, you could. I had turned 36 about three months before the program. I went down there. I talked to everybody I could. I went to the Headquarters, talked to everybody I could. "Look, I can really help you. What's a few months to your rule? Can't you just move that?" The answer I got was, "Well, wait a minute. Right behind you there's another one who's two more months and then another two or three months behind that." They finally said, "No, we are going to have to hold to the rule." "Ross-Nazzal: Do you want to talk about the repair of Solar Max [satellite]? Abrahamson: That was my last flight. I was very happy with the job at NASA. The only thing I was unhappy about is I couldn't fly in the machine. I was thinking about ways to try to get that approved time and time again, and Beggs would say, "No. It would be bad publicity. You're supposed to be the manager of this thing and responsible for safety and effectiveness, and not flying." I hated him for that, and, I mean, I love Jim Beggs, terrific guy" "I flew the Air Force Reserve General in who was the Shuttle commander on the second flight, Joe [H.] Engle. He came with me and went out to Hughes, where they were building the satellites, and McDonnell Douglas and said, "We can go get those carcasses." They hadn't gone that far away from our orbit. It takes a terrible amount of energy to make an orbital plane change, just terrific amount of energy, so he thought we could do that. Now, they didn't do that while I was still there, but I kept in touch with that. When they finally got around, and Joe was going to lead the mission to go do that, they did. Joe called me, and Joe was a particularly really good friend. Well, I loved every one of those guys and remained envious, of course. [b]I still cry at night that I never got to go[/b] because of the whole thing.[/i]
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