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Author
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Topic: Astronaut Don Peterson in photo S70-25124
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Hart Sastrowardoyo
Member Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 06-14-2016 09:00 PM
   
In looking at S70-25124, two things stand out: - Why did Peterson sign as "Pete Peterson"? Aside from this, are there any instances of him signing this way?
- Everyone in that group flew as a pilot and/or commander - except for Peterson, who flew as a mission specialist. Would he have eventually flown as a pilot if he stayed with NASA, and what's the reason for him flying as a mission specialist?
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Rick Mulheirn
Member Posts: 4167
From: England
Registered: Feb 2001
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posted 06-15-2016 06:22 AM
I don't know why the image was signed Pete Peterson but I suspect that is what he was known as amongst his colleagues and it simply stuck. |
Tom
Member Posts: 1597
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000
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posted 06-15-2016 12:32 PM
There were several "pilot" astronauts that flew their first (shuttle) flight as mission specialist. In most cases they went on to fly subsequent flights as pilot and eventually commander. |
KenDavis
Member Posts: 187
From: W.Sussex United Kingdom
Registered: May 2003
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posted 06-15-2016 04:37 PM
One could ask the same question of Bruce McCandless and Don Lind from Group 5 who could have flown to the moon yet also flew as mission specialists, rather than pilots on the shuttle. I guess it was to do with what activities they were involved in during the 70s. McCandless was key in the development of the MMU so it made sense for him to fly as a mission specialist. Peterson made the the first spacewalk of the shuttle era so he was probably involved in EVA work and would not have reaped the benefits of that if he had pursued a pilot/commander role. Don Lind was probably heavily involved in Spacelab which again let to a mission specialist, rather than pilot role. I'm sure all three could have pursued the pilot option if they had wished, but found the alternatives more appealing (Just my thoughts and not based on any documentation.) |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 06-15-2016 04:54 PM
quote:
Originally posted by KenDavis:
Peterson made the the first spacewalk of the shuttle era so he was probably involved in EVA work...
Peterson's oral history explains how he came about doing the EVA: Now, we didn't know at the time, we didn't know until very late in the training cycle that we were going to do a space walk. That was not planned. That happened because the spacesuits on the flight before ours, both of the suits failed, and those guys could not do the space walk that they were supposed to do.It's kind of funny, George Abbey, I think, had some people already picked out that he wanted to have the honor of doing the first space walk, and when that cancelled, he said, "Well, we'll have to slip now. It'll take months to get another crew ready." Jim Abrahamson, who's an old friend of mine, was the [Associate] Administrator. He called me on the phone and said, "Can you and Story do the space walk?" And I said, "Yeah." So he said, "Okay. We're going to do it on the next flight." Well, it didn't give us much time to train. I didn't have very much experience in the suit, but the advantage we had was, Story was the Astronaut Office point of contact for the suit development, so Story knew everything about the suit there was to know... |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 06-15-2016 07:37 PM
quote:
Originally posted by Hart Sastrowardoyo:
Why did Peterson sign as "Pete Peterson"?
I don't know the story behind it, but the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal lists "Pete" as Peterson's nickname. Col. Donald H. "Pete" Peterson, USAF (Retired) And NASA's caption for S79-36378 reads: Official portrait of Astronaut Pete Peterson posing in ejection escape suit (EES) holding helmet. |
randy
Member Posts: 2176
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 06-16-2016 08:15 AM
To add to Ken Davis' message above, Don Lind was also heavily involved in planning and coordinating the surface activities for the lunar missions. As he told me, "there was no one else who knew more about the surface activities of the astronauts than I did." |
Michael Cassutt
Member Posts: 358
From: Studio City CA USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 06-16-2016 09:59 AM
Regarding Don Peterson and the "Pete" nickname, nicknames change over years and especially when people move from one environment to another. For example, it was "Ken" Mattingly in the Apollo era... but "T.K." a decade later during the Shuttle. I suspect that Peterson was just "Pete" in Air Force/MOL days, but that people began calling him "Don" at NASA.As for why he flew as an MS, I believe that he had a temporary physical condition in the late 1970s that affected his flying status, so I'm not sure how experienced or current on the STA he was — and that was a requirement for assignment as a Shuttle pilot. McCandless was current on and flying the STA when offered the chance (in early 1983) to fly as an MS with the maneuvering unit, and he was happy to take it. |
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