posted 04-26-2005 12:11 PM               

Slayton's original plan for Grissom was to fly the 14 day Gemini flight which eventually became Gemini 7. Presumably he would have remained on that flight and participated in the rendezvous with Gemini 6. On to Apollo...

In reality he was Schirra's Gemini 6 backup and would have been available for Apollo in the same timeframe in this scenario. Shepard would have gotten the command of Apollo 204 and either Schirra or Grissom would have received Apollo 205, the repeat of the C mission.

My opinion is that Schirra would have gotten 205 and Grissom would have been assigned to the more difficult D mission with the first flight of the LM.

Following the fire I would think Schirra would receive the first Apollo flight and Grissom would remain on the D mission. However, it's entirely possible considering Grissom's engineering expertise he may have been assigned the first Apollo flight in the belief that he would have gotten Apollo back on track sooner than Schirra.

Recall that in reality Schirra had wanted the first D mission but instead received the Apollo 1 backup slot that he dreaded. It seems extremely unlikely Slayton would assign him to "this" D mission. Schirra would most likely be Grissom's backup on the first Apollo flight which became Apollo 7.

Wally's response to his backup assignment which in reality occurred prior to the fire would most likely be the same in this scenario making a future Apollo assignment for him extremely unlikely.

Flying either the first Apollo or the D mission would have put Grissom in a fine position to continue on to attempt the first lunar landing.

Any thoughts?

posted 04-26-2005 01:29 PM               

However, with Grissom backing up Apollo 8, would he get shifted to Apollo 9 when the 8/9 switch occurs in 1968? Would Grissom be prepared to do a backup job, especially for Borman? If it meant being first on the moon, probably, but you never know.

If Grissom did live then Gordo Cooper wouldn't have gotten another assignment. With an extra CDR in the mix, the Apollo 10 gap doesn't appear and Gordo finishes up with GT-12 backup CDR. It would also have probably put Neil Armstrong on Apollo 13.