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Author Topic:   Navy Blue Angels and NASA astronauts
WSTFphoto
Member

Posts: 70
From: Las Cruces, NM, USA
Registered: May 2005

posted 12-23-2006 07:59 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for WSTFphoto   Click Here to Email WSTFphoto     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Were any astronauts former members of the United States Navy's Blue Angels flight demonstration squadron?

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 12-23-2006 08:09 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The late astronaut Charles "Chuck" Brady was a flight surgeon for the Blue Angels. Otherwise, I am unaware of any others with a connection to the squadron.

heng44
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Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001

posted 12-25-2006 12:48 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for heng44   Click Here to Email heng44     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I was at Kennedy Space Center for STS-1 in April 1981. A few days before launch we were driving up to the press site when the Blue Angels made a low pass over the Columbia on the launch pad. We were too late to see them well, but it was an impressive moment.

ColinBurgess
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Posts: 2031
From: Sydney, Australia
Registered: Sep 2003

posted 12-25-2006 07:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ColinBurgess   Click Here to Email ColinBurgess     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
quote:
Originally posted by Robert Pearlman:
The late astronaut Charles "Chuck" Brady was a flight surgeon for the Blue Angels.
I contacted Chuck Brady with congratulations soon after his selection was announced, and in his reply he sent me a nice fold-up pamphlet on the 1989 Blue Angels pilots with small photos and thumbnail biographies, and he had signed his photo. I think he may have sent these out before getting his NASA lithos.

No other NASA astronaut was on the pamphlet.

SPACEFACTS
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Posts: 301
From: Germany
Registered: Aug 2006

posted 12-27-2006 12:41 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for SPACEFACTS   Click Here to Email SPACEFACTS     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Roland E. "Auz" Aslund (born July 20, 1927, died October 20, 1987) run for the NASA astronaut group 2 - without success. He was member of the Blue Angels in 1953/54.

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-22-2016 03:05 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Blue Angels just took to the air here as part of the annual Wings Over Houston air show. On Friday (Oct. 21), astronaut Reid Wiseman flew with the team during their practice.
Just flew with the Blue Angels - that was TOTALLY INSANE!!!!

The Blue Angels were a huge part of the path I took in life. Motivating to see these aircraft in the skies above Houston.

According to Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, the late Alan Poindexter had also flown on a practice run with the Blue Angels.

Dex did many years ago... told us about the incredible stick forces.
While in Houston, the squadron also toured Johnson Space Center.

Wehaveliftoff
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Posts: 2343
From:
Registered: Aug 2001

posted 10-22-2016 08:47 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Wehaveliftoff     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Wow, what views. When I saw the Blue Angels this year, thought more astronauts preempted their careers in Navy Blue Angels, but their flying skills are stupendous, nonetheless.

Delta7
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Posts: 1505
From: Bluffton IN USA
Registered: Oct 2007

posted 10-23-2016 08:49 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Delta7   Click Here to Email Delta7     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I think I read somewhere that Alan Bean had been accepted into the Blue Angels around the same time he was selected as an astronaut. Maybe his "Plan B."

Robert Pearlman
Editor

Posts: 42988
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999

posted 10-23-2016 01:44 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Robert Pearlman   Click Here to Email Robert Pearlman     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
A UPI article from Nov. 8, 1969 mentions Bean was offered a spot on the Blue Angels. "He turned it down, applying for the astronaut corps instead."

music_space
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Posts: 1179
From: Canada
Registered: Jul 2001

posted 10-23-2016 06:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for music_space   Click Here to Email music_space     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
The Blue Angels will be associated with astronauts forever. The 2008 Astronaut Scholarship Foundation (ASF) show coincided with an aerial show including the Navy outfit, and several among us attended the event in the ASF VIP zone. This was for me the most memorable informal event with astronauts in attendance.

OV-105
Member

Posts: 816
From: Ridgecrest, CA
Registered: Sep 2000

posted 10-24-2016 08:39 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for OV-105   Click Here to Email OV-105     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
I don't think you will see too many. By the time they get the flight hours in, they are at a choice to go to test pilot school or flight demo team.

Also going with the flight demo team they are more of a long term military career person. Not that astronauts or test pilots are not, but the demo team pilots are normally going for higher military command.

When you look at the number of pilots that become astronauts, flight demo, and test pilots are all very small number. Doing all three would be like hitting all the numbers on the Powerball twice.

All times are CT (US)

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