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Author
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Topic: Jack Swigert as Apollo 16 backup CDR?
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taneal1
Member Posts: 264
From: Orlando, FL
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 07-17-2021 01:41 AM
   
Anyone know why Jack Swigert wasn't assigned as backup commander for Apollo 16? On page 262 of "Deke" (Deke Slayton, Michael Cassutt): The backup crew [for 16], pointed at 19, was going to be Fred Haise as CDR... (Jim Lovell was retiring and I didn't want to send poor Jack Swigert around the Moon again.") So if Swigert had been assigned to the Apollo 16 backup crew, he would have flown as command module pilot.When Jim Lovell left that crew, Swigert should have moved up to commander. Skipping two flights per the usual procedure would put Swigert on Apollo 16 as commander, but Fred Haise got the assignment instead. Could it have been because he flew earlier (on Apollo 13) than originally planned (on Apollo 16)? However, earlier crewmember replacements e.g. Stafford-Cernan (for See-Bassett), and Lovell (for Collins) stayed in the rotation from their new assignments. Of course, Swigert for Ken Mattingly was a last minute change, but Mattingly was on the Apollo 16 prime crew as command module pilot, and couldn't have taken the backup commander slot on Apollo 16. If Mattingly had flown on Apollo 13, then he should have gotten the backup commander on Apollo 16, so Swigert wouldn't be usurping Haise. On page 278 of "Deke" it is stated that Swigert was assigned to Apollo-Soyuz Test Project as command module pilot, because he "deserved another chance to fly, since he had been thrown into Apollo 13 at the last minute, with all that happened." This doesn't really explain why he wasn't given the commander assignment on Apollo 16. The stamp issue didn't come up until after the ASTP assignment, so was it the unplanned "early" flight on Apollo 13, or did Deke think he just wasn't ready to fly as commander? |
Kite
Member Posts: 956
From: Northampton UK
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted 07-17-2021 06:50 AM
By coincidence I have only just finished re-reading "Deke" and can confirm what you say. It appears to me that Slayton considered Haise more senior, as although having the same amount of time in space as Swigert, he had served two spells as back up to those momentous flights Apollo 8 and Apollo 11. |
Michael Cassutt
Member Posts: 368
From: Studio City CA USA
Registered: Mar 2005
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posted 07-17-2021 12:54 PM
Haise, like Mitchell and Irwin, was a specialist in the lunar module as far back as 1967. Slayton's inclination was to rotate those astronauts to potential lunar landing commands if the opportunity presented.Also, Haise was highly-regarded by MSC leaders like Gilruth, Low and Kraft as well as Slayton. He would not only have been ahead of Swigert in the Apollo 16 backup commander sweepstakes, but was also offered ASTP by Kraft (turned it down) and given the first Approach and Landing Test crew command. |
Delta7
Member Posts: 1663
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007
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posted 07-17-2021 06:13 PM
I presume there was the chance that had Apollo 13 been flown by Lovell, Mattingly and Haise with Lovell and Haise successfully landing, that Mattingly was a candidate for Apollo 16 backup commander/Apollo 19 commander at that time. (Mattingly, Pogue, Carr?). And as such being bumped from Apollo 13 was a doubly bitter pill for him to swallow. quote:
Originally posted by Michael Cassutt:
Haise, like Mitchell and Irwin...
I wonder if John Bull was originally included in that group. | |
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