posted 01-14-2005 03:30 PM               

• They do list short biographies of Russian cosmonauts, but only seem to mention their flights on the shuttle. Many of those Russians are accomplished spacefarers with far more time in space than most US astronauts - wouldn't that be a necessary part of any professional biographical listing? Also, most are listed as current and active, which is not the case.

• When mentioning American astronauts who reached their destined locaton in space, they probably got there with the help of a magical stick. Thagard - his long term stay is to be referred as "MIR/STS-71". No word of Soyuz TM-21 that got him there. Same with Mike Foale. He "was" there, but never "got there". Leroy Chiao's current mission is not even mentioned. Then again, Lu deserves the privilege of seeing his TMA-2 spacecraft listed. I assume THIS is considered the error by NASA - the existence of foreign spacecraft is to be camouflaged.

• Russian cosmonauts who flew on the shuttle are listed with biographies. However, spacefarers from other nations who did the same are not honored to the same degree. Merbold and Baudry, Mukai, Tognini and Clervoy (who even followed and completed full mission specialist training) are not listed with a biography.

  McAuliffe, Jarvis and Ramon - no biography. To be nasty: they succeeded to get them killed, but that's not worth a biographical listing?

• When it comes to "former" astronauts, John Young is listed as being such a former one. Duane Carey, who left before Young, is still mentioned as active. Jim Wetherbee, who left at the same time as Young, is still there. Gennady Strekalov, who died before Young formally quit, is still alive for them.

posted 01-15-2005 02:04 PM               

- International flyers biographies and information:

The non-U.S. information presented here was gathered from the biographies provided by the various space agencies with which these individuals are affiliated.

- Soyuz launches:

The space flights and statistics listed in this publication resulted from the vertical takeoff of an American space vehicle or Soyuz taxi flights to the International Space Station.

- Payload specialists:

Payload specialists are career scientists or engineers selected by their employer or country for their expertise in conducting a specific experiment or commercial venture. Information about them is not included in the Astronaut Fact Book.

posted 01-16-2005 05:06 AM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
So, the absence of biographies may be because the flyer's agency failed to provide one (in a timely manner or otherwise).

---

quote:

---

Hence, Thagard's Mir flight is not included. As for Chiao, it may be a situation of when the content was written, as with the retirement/death statistics noted below.

---

And is there any valid reason to deprive poor Norman Thagard (who certainly had the hardest job of all the MIR visitors) from his achievement of being the first US astronaut on a Russian vehicle? Certainly not.

The spacecraft Ed Lu used for his long term stay on ISS is mentioned - coherent with the policy you describe. It is not for Foale or Chiao, nor others. Sloppiness for sure, or a deliberate policy to omit the fact that NASA had to use Russian spacecraft to deliver their astronauts to the ISS?

Payload specialists are career scientists or engineers selected by their employer or country for their expertise in conducting a specific experiment or commercial venture. Information about them is not included in the Astronaut Fact Book.

But you're missing the point entirely: I was talking about the mission specialists. Tognini, Clervoy, Ilan Ramon all were fully qualified mission specialists. The former MS of NASA are listed, the former MS from abroad are not. In other words: incoherent and thus discriminative selection.

quote:

---

The errors made in retirement and death statistics, as noted above, may in part be a factor of when the content was prepared and "frozen" for publication.

---

quote:

---

Finally, in regards to cosmonaut/international astronaut flight statistics being limited to U.S. flights only, the purpose of this document is and has always been to track manned spaceflights as they pertain only to the U.S. space program (which is logical, given that its being published and distributed for free by the U.S. space agency).

---

posted 04-13-2013 08:05 AM            

I had no clue about Scobee receiving a promotion to Maj. Gen. though. I thought he had retired from active duty, prior to STS 51-L as a Lt. Col. That seems like quite a jump.

The only posthumous astronaut promotions I knew of were Mike Smith and Laurel Clark from Navy Commanders to Captains after STS 51-L and 107.

posted 04-15-2013 12:57 PM               

He joined the Air Force then, and while I believe he was a reserve (as opposed to regular) officer for the first few years, he had to have received a regular commission around 1955, long before he became an astronaut.

He resigned from the Air Force in November 1963. He was a major at the time.

Givens was a major at the time of his death.

posted 04-15-2013 06:13 PM               

quote:

---

Originally posted by Michael Cassutt:
Scobee had resigned from the Air Force after selection as an astronaut, but prior to his flight on 41-C he retired (had over 20 years of USAF service) as a major. A posthumous promotion to major general is a ludicrous idea.

---

Still, his son with the same name is a Brigadier General ("one star general" for you civilian types), I guess it's always possible there was an error along those lines?