Posts: 2212
From: Worcestershire, England, UK.
Registered: Apr 2008

posted 05-16-2013 11:50 AM               

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I've only just realised that both Walter Cronkite and Jay Barbaree were selected in the final 40 of NASA's Journalist in Space program during 1986.

I also see that there was a Donn Pearlman in the initial selection, any relation Robert?

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From: Olympia, WA
Registered: Sep 2011

posted 05-16-2013 06:07 PM               

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One of my primary interests is in War Correspondents in WW2, so I know a bit about Cronkite.

quote:

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Originally posted by dabolton:
Cronkite was a bit before my era but I recall him always being somewhat rotund. Was he fit enough to even qualify?

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The man was in his 70s by the time he'd have flown had he gone up if he'd gone up in the 80s, that is. That's not that odd to us now after Glenn going up, but it'd been odd then, I'd think. I remember clearly people talking about Cronkite going up at the time. It was a popular opinion among people I was around as my folks and all the adults I knew thought fondly of him for his Apollo reporting.

He WASN'T very big, especially considering his age. Just google shots of him in the 80s and 90s. He was short, but that rarely was a problem for American astronauts. But health-wise, he was in that generation of smoking/drinking reporters (think, "Mad Men" but with typewriters for the guys and nobody looking that glamorous). I wouldn't have bene shocked if he would have had problems with a treadmill at that age.

Had he gone on a shuttle mission, it wouldn't have been the first unpowered aircraft landing he would have had. As a reporter war correspondent for the UP, he landed into Holland in September of 1944 in a glider alongside the 101st Airborne in "Operation Market Garden." He had also flown combat missions in B-17s as part of a special group of correspondents devoted to the air war. I'm sure he also flew in Helicopters several times when he was in Vietnam, too. Nobody else in human history would have had all those experiences had he flown on a shuttle mission.

Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
Registered: Aug 2000

posted 05-16-2013 09:32 PM               

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Not much of a shot, but here's a picture of Cronkite in 2004.

And yes, I'm trying to track down the other 39 semifinalists. I know there whereabouts of four - two are at colleges, one is an author (and had it not been for traffic delays, would have meet him) and the other is a speaker - heard him talk, didn't have time to meet him directly. A fifth, Lynn Sherr is writing Ride's bio, so I'll meet her should there be a book tour. And one other than Cronkite has died.

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Posts: 968
From: Texas * Earth
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posted 05-21-2013 09:16 PM            

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Back then the selection process continued but everyone knew that none of us would ever fly. The applications were due, and to be postmarked, no later than January 15, 1986. So, about two weeks after that NASA and Congress' whole "Citizen in Space" project was coming into question and unofficially terminated.

Did not make the final forty.

Posts: 729
From: South Carolina
Registered: Jul 2006

posted 05-21-2013 10:19 PM               

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quote:

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Originally posted by mach3valkyrie:
Not sure about ABC's Jules Bergman, who died in 1987.

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It would not surprise me if Bergman would have been medically disqualified, if not in initial selection then certainly later on; by the early '80s Bergman had a history of seizures and a brain tumor. I don't know how much medical vetting was done during the initial process, but he probably wouldn't have made the final cut anyway due to his medical history. That's unfortunate because had he been able to fly, Bergman would have provided some interesting reports from orbit (though he probably wouldn't have been able to do his famous heat-shield demonstration with the propane torch).

Had Cronkite been selected I know he'd have done anything and everything to get into whatever shape he needed to be in. The man just plain wanted to fly in space, and would have moved heaven and earth to get in required trim.

On a related topic, I'll forever think it a shame Miles O'Brien didn't get to fly. As good a job as we've done sending pilots and scientists into space, I think we're just a little poorer for not having had just one reporter fly along and file reports from on orbit. It's an opportunity I'll forever mourn, and not just because I once made my wage as a lowly newspaper scribe and now do so as a journalism educator.

Posts: 3445
From: Toms River, NJ
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From: Atlanta-area, GA USA
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posted 06-04-2014 07:34 AM               

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I wish Hart the best in his latest challenge.

On a related note, I have pursued autographs of the 100+ Teacher-in-Space Semi-Finalists, and after starting years ago and again in 2013, obtained autographs of 39 of the 113 Semi-Finalists, which include the ten Finalists.

Lists of all the Journalists- and Teachers-in-Space can be found in the excellent 'Who's Who in Space' book. The book gives the name, and school location of each teacher, but after all these years few are still in teaching, so I had to find home addresses. In 2013 I found addresses for about 35 and had positive results with 20.

Hopefully Hart will have better success with the 40 journalists than I had with the teachers. But we both started late with an autograph project that would have been very successful not long after 51L.

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posted 06-04-2014 10:51 AM               

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OK, make that 36 to track down....

One difference between the J-i-S and the T-i-S semifinalists is that a lot of the journalists are still in their field - still at their company or doing some sort of communications work, even 30 years later. Even the one I found now into training marathoners has written books.

Posts: 1310
From: Staten Island, New York USA
Registered: Nov 2007

posted 06-04-2014 11:59 AM               

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I've always wondered, had Challenger not happened and an American would have been the first journalist in space (Toyohiro Akiyama, of Japan's TBS broadcast company, was first in a Mir flight in 1990), how the coverage of the space program would have changed after a reporter was 'embedded', so to speak, during a shuttle mission.

Granted, even if an accident happened after such a flight, it would have added a different perspective, akin to reporters being attached to combat units in the recent Gulf wars. I too lament the fact that a knowledgeable, excellent journalist like Miles O'Brien did not get a chance to ply his trade from earth orbit. Then again, maybe he can take a ride on one of the upcoming commercial passenger ventures?

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From: Toms River, NJ
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posted 06-07-2014 06:58 PM               

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Actually, one now works for JPL...

Separately, Terry Anzur said she'd still love to go. She's sending me a signed photo.

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posted 08-04-2014 02:45 PM               

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I hope not, because who then sent me an email last week saying, yes, go ahead and send your photo?

That is his father. The candidate is Lee Jr.