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Author
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Topic: Apollo 1 original crew and Roger Chaffee
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Delta7
Member Posts: 1527
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 08-28-2008 07:04 PM
   
Being that the consensus is that Grissom, White and Eisele were the original crew for the first manned Apollo flight, is there any evidence as to where Roger Chaffee fit in that original scenario? Is it possible that the original backup crew consisted of McDivitt, Scott and Chaffee, and that Chaffee simply moved up a slot after Eisele became temporarily out of commission? It opens up an interesting scenario where McDivitt, Scott and Chaffee wind up flying Apollo 9 (with Chaffee completing a full 2-hour EVA), and then Chaffee possibly going on to land on the moon as LMP with Dave Scott on Apollo 15 (as was originally planned for Rusty Schweikart). |
Michael Cassutt
Member Posts: 358
From: Studio City CA USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 08-28-2008 08:56 PM
Nope. Chaffee was relegated to the astronauts ticketed for Block I flights, then likely AAP. He would have been moved up from Schirra's "Apollo 2" team. McDivitt-Scott-Schweickart -- like Borman's original crew (Borman-Collins-Anders in this time frame) -- was headed for a Block II mission. These were two of the three crews Slayton wanted available for the first lunar landing.Michael Cassutt |
Delta7
Member Posts: 1527
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 08-28-2008 09:33 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Michael Cassutt:
-- like Borman's original crew (Borman-Collins-Anders in this time frame) -- was headed for a Block II mission.
Would that be Borman/BASSETT/Anders?And are we talking Schirra/Chaffee/Cunningham? |
Michael Cassutt
Member Posts: 358
From: Studio City CA USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 08-29-2008 12:10 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Delta7:
Would that be Borman/BASSETT/Anders? And are we talking Schirra/Chaffee/Cunningham?
Depends on which day we're using... Eisele suffered his shoulder injury in December 65, as I recall, but the Apollo 1 crew wasn't announced until late March 1966. I have no idea when Slayton determined that Eisele wouldn't be ready for Apollo 1. Until he made that call, the likely Apollo 2 was Schirra-Chaffee-Cunningham... but keep in mind that while Slayton was firm about which commanders were flying which missions, and which CMPs would be on the early Block II missions... the other crew positions were fairly fluid.And Bassett was killed on February 28, 1966 so the notional Borman-Bassett-Anders crew was no longer possible at the time of the actual announcement. Michael Cassutt |
Tom
Member Posts: 1610
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 08-29-2008 11:35 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Michael Cassutt:
And Bassett was killed on February 28, 1966 so the notional Borman-Bassett-Anders crew was no longer possible at the time of the actual announcement.
Michael... wasn't that crew actually Borman- Bassett-Collins, which became Borman-Stafford-Collins afer Bassett's death? |
Michael Cassutt
Member Posts: 358
From: Studio City CA USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 08-29-2008 03:55 PM
You're right! There was yet another turn of Slayton's wheel before Borman-Collins-Anders turne dup.(That's what happens when you rely on memory... when we were working on his book, I was amused to find that Stafford himself had forgotten that crew, since it only existed for about two months in 1966.) MC |
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