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  Who of the Original 7 was "Candidate R"?

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Author Topic:   Who of the Original 7 was "Candidate R"?
taneal1
Member

Posts: 230
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 10-27-2009 02:42 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for taneal1   Click Here to Email taneal1     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Candidate R was one of the three candidates rated as "Outstanding with Reservations". So he either wasn't certain he wanted to be a Mercury Astronaut or he had a heart murmur or he was stressed out in the heat chamber as stated by the selection board.

The heart murmur of course brings Slayton to mind, but according to all known sources this was only discovered AFTER selection. Of course it's possible he did show symptoms during the selection process and simply was not informed. Because he was selected he could be R, but not V, or DD.

William Lawrence was rated highly, but not selected due to problems in the Heat Chamber. Some sources describe this as a heart murmur, but that could have been perceived as stress-induced. He could be candidate V, or DD.

Two candidates were not certain about accepting the astronaut assignment. Schirra, and James Woods. Halvor Ekeren dropped out late in the selection process, and was killed in a plane crash one week after the astronaut selection was announced. Schirra could be R. Woods or Ekeren could be V or DD.

My personal opinion is that NASA would be less likely to choose a candidate with a medical problem over one who initially felt this was not a good career decision.

It seems Schirra is a likely choice for Candidate R as he most definitely had reservations about becoming an astronaut - at least initially...

taneal1
Member

Posts: 230
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: Feb 2004

posted 10-27-2009 04:58 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for taneal1   Click Here to Email taneal1     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Per the Mercury Candidate Evaluation Program document: p.89 "3 of these were classed as "outstanding with reservations,"one because he was not convinced he wanted to be in the program, one due to a heart murmur, and one due to high stress under heat testing."

Per p.46 Table 5.2 Final Ranking on Heat Test
Of the 31 candidates V, DD, & R ranked 9th, 5th and 28th respectively. From the Outstanding w/Reservations group, this certainly makes R a likely candidate to be the one with "high stress under heat testing."

Does anyone have any info that one of the selected "7" had a problem during the heat tests?

capoetc
Member

Posts: 2169
From: McKinney TX (USA)
Registered: Aug 2005

posted 10-27-2009 09:43 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for capoetc   Click Here to Email capoetc     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wasn't it Max Peck?

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John Capobianco
Camden DE

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