Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001

posted 01-12-2008 07:41 AM               

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Chief astronaut Deke Slayton is briefing the new group 3 astronauts after their selection in October 1963. Wally Schirra and Neil Armstrong are also present, as they will play a role in the training of group 3. On the blackboard behind them are details about the branch heads of the Astronaut Office and their secretaries: Grissom for Gemini, "Shepherd" [sic] for Apollo and Schirra for Operations & Training. Among the listeners we can see Chaffee, Freeman, Scott, Gordon, Cunningham (smoking a pipe!), Williams, Anders, Schweickart and Cernan.

Ed Hengeveld

Posts: 1597
From: New York
Registered: Nov 2000

posted 01-12-2008 08:51 AM               

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Great photo, Ed.

I find it odd that Shepard would be branch head for Apollo at that time (1963). Wasn't he still assigned as CDR of the first Gemini flight?

Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005

posted 01-14-2008 03:05 PM               

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It appears they needed to pick astronauts to be their representative for each program... including Apollo, even though Gemini hadn't even flown by that time. So it appears they just picked some of the senior astronauts at the time... meaning flown Mercury astronauts. At this time, it was probably assumed most, if not all, of the Mercury guys may still fly again in Gemini and Apollo...since all of the Mercury guys were still technically active astronauts at the time the photo was taken.

Of course, we now know that only 3 of them flew on Gemini and only 2 flew on Apollo, as Shepard was soon grounded, and both Glenn and Carpenter were soon to leave NASA.

Posts: 5952
From: Brussels, Belgium
Registered: Jan 2001

Posts: 3811
From: Midwest, USA
Registered: Jul 2005

Posts: 1049
From: County Down, Nothern Ireland
Registered: Feb 2002