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Author Topic:   Rusty's sickness
carmelo
Member

Posts: 1051
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 12-29-2004 10:36 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for carmelo   Click Here to Email carmelo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The space sickness of Rusty Schweickart on apollo 9 was a permanent affliction? If Rusty had flown again would be returned ?

Tom
Member

Posts: 1610
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 12-29-2004 11:31 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Tom   Click Here to Email Tom     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Dave Scott does talk about Rusty's space sickness in his new book. I don't think it was that serious, being that NASA later assigned him as the back-up CDR for Skylab 1 (a 28 day mission).

R.Glueck
Member

Posts: 115
From: Winterport, Maine, USA
Registered: Jul 2004

posted 12-29-2004 12:32 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for R.Glueck   Click Here to Email R.Glueck     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Actually, I think NASA's (meaning Dekes) crew assignment were a bit unfair in several instances. Rusty was an ultra-liberal for a military pilot, and didn't fit the mold nicely. I think his political views might have colored his reassignments. Bill Anders should have also gotten a second shot, but was passed over. Cunningham and Eisele got payback for what they dished out, but that was Krafts choice. Gordo didn't play the game by the necessary rules. In my opinion, Rusty space sickness was a convenient excuse to deal him out, but this is only speculation on my part.

Matt T
Member

Posts: 1369
From: Chester, Cheshire, UK
Registered: May 2001

posted 12-29-2004 01:19 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Matt T   Click Here to Email Matt T     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The best account of Rusty's space sickness and it's consequences comes straight from the man himself, at the NASA Oral Histories site -

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/SchweickartRL/schweickartrl.pdf

Rusty's intentions post-Apollo 9 certainly contradict Deke's view, as discussed in his autobiography. Deke thought that Rusty was happy to be passed over for future missions; maybe Deke's way of rationalizing his decision after the event?

As a side note, if you haven't read any of the Oral Histories you're missing out on a gold mine of anecdotes and stories, straight from the astronauts, flight directors, engineers, suit-techs, designers and many others.

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/history/oral_histories/oral_histories.htm

Cheers,
Matt

------------------
http://www.spaceracemuseum.com

carmelo
Member

Posts: 1051
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 12-29-2004 03:17 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for carmelo   Click Here to Email carmelo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Yes i have noticed that he has gone from the crew cuts of 60s at 70s style long hairs,incredibles for an astronaut! so he was a liberal !

Matt T
Member

Posts: 1369
From: Chester, Cheshire, UK
Registered: May 2001

posted 12-29-2004 06:09 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Matt T   Click Here to Email Matt T     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I enjoy Rusty's perspective on the experience and importance of spaceflight and find it very refreshing. All the Mercury/Gemini/Apollo astronauts were extremely intelligent, perceptive people. Unfortunately very few were comfortable with expressing any kind of intellectual curiosity about the meaning and value of their experiences. The following is excerpted from an informal interview Rusty gave in 1977 as part of a 'Space Day'.

"Brand: So you speculate that experience with biology in space will make us better Earth dwellers?

Schweickart: Sure. It's part of Alan Watts' observation: "What is it I call me? I call me that which is within this membrane called my skin. However what's within this membrane that I call my skin is also that which is not within what is outside my skin." In other words I could play the reference either way. And I will in fact learn more about what's inside my skin if I understand what it is that's not outside my skin. We'll learn more about ourselves as human beings in studying the ground. We tend to focus on the figure.

Brand: So studying the ground of space we got the figure of the Earth?

Schweickart: Yes.

Brand: What then is the ground of which space is the figure?

Schweickart: Life. I mean, it is life which perceives space.

Brand: Go on.

Schweickart: What is it that perceives or conceives of the universe? It's life, consciousness, awareness, or intelligence, or God. You can express it in many ways, but it is that which is the ground on which space or the universe is the figure."

The full text is here -

http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/CoEvolutionBook/OPERA.HTML

Along with these other interviews with Schweickart -

http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/CoEvolutionBook/RSCH.HTML

http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/CoEvolutionBook/SPACE.HTML#WHO'S%20EARTH

http://lifesci3.arc.nasa.gov/SpaceSettlement/CoEvolutionBook/SPACE.HTML#There%20Ain't%20No%20Graceful%20Way


Cheers,
Matt

------------------
http://www.spaceracemuseum.com

carmelo
Member

Posts: 1051
From: Messina, Sicilia, Italia
Registered: Jun 2004

posted 12-30-2004 09:54 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for carmelo   Click Here to Email carmelo     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The perfect crew for apollo landing mission would have been: Scott Carpenter CMDR,Vance Brand CMP,Rusty Schweickart LMP. Maybe too much for NASA.

BMckay
Member

Posts: 3267
From: MA, USA
Registered: Sep 2002

posted 12-30-2004 10:19 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for BMckay   Click Here to Email BMckay     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
How about this:

Carpenter- LMP
Gordon Cooper- CMDR
Rusty- CMP

It would have made for an interesting mission.

R.Glueck
Member

Posts: 115
From: Winterport, Maine, USA
Registered: Jul 2004

posted 12-30-2004 04:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for R.Glueck   Click Here to Email R.Glueck     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I am so happy to see more people recognizing Carpenter's sense of "being there" and what it meant to the opening of spaceflight. He has been vastly underrated as a part of making regular human spaceflight a reality. And while Carpenter was a competant testpilot and engineer, he saw the larger picture, which many others could not make time to envision. Those lunar crew assignments would have made for an amazing mission, both in science and experience.

FFrench
Member

Posts: 3165
From: San Diego
Registered: Feb 2002

posted 01-09-2005 12:55 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for FFrench     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by R.Glueck:
Bill Anders should have also gotten a second shot, but was passed over.

Actually, Anders could have flown again, but chose not to. He was backup CMP for Apollo 11 and would have flown to the Moon again had he stayed in the rotation. But he was interested in landing, not just orbiting again as a CMP, so by September 1969 he took himself out of active training to work over at the NASC.

FF

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